RWBY: Summer's Clones
by Commander Indrick Boreale
Summary: When given the choice to clone herself for the opportunity to have a child of her own, it was an obvious decision for Summer Rose. But given the lives of clones and what they be, what would fate have in store for the Young Ruby Rose, the first clone of Summer Rose?
1. Chapter 1

Summer Rose stared in silent contemplation at the older man in a white lab coat for about a minute, before shutting her eyes and breathing out a small, barely audible sigh.

"So... what's this going to cost me?" She inquired, taking a moment to actually take in the bright, stark white room around her and the bright light blue lights illuminating it ever so subtly. "I'd imagine cloning someone isn't a cheap procedure, especially if they're-"

"Your infertility does not complicate the procedure, ma'am, I'm pleased to report." The man said with a polite gesture for her to take a seat in front of his desk. His voice was deep, with a slight hint of an atlesian accent. "And all it will cost you, yourself, is a few liters of blood, ten, to be exact, though obviously over the course of a year, in some cases, two."

Summer took a moment to think on her own quietly, before looking over to her husband, Taiyang, and her stepdaughter Yang for a moment, smiling fondly at the two. She was about to speak again, after taking a seat, but before she could, Tai had spoken first...

"Wait, why would she need to donate so much blood? I thought it only takes ten nanoliters to make a clone with strong genes?" He spoke with an inquisitive tone. The doctor simply smiled before answering.

"It's simply the price. The remaining amount of blood is simply for a sort of... project, that the Atlesian Military is undertaking. Should you accept, you will be privy to this knowledge, though it must remain... confidential." The doctor stated, before the couple shared a look of intrigue and slight concern. "I can assure you, given the current treatment of clones in today's society, what they're doing is completely moral."

"Well... okay I guess. If it's not gonna cost us anything but a little blood, I guess there's no harm in it... on one condition." Summer said, getting a curious look out of the good doctor.

"Might I inquire as to what that may be?" He spoke, a look of curiosity spreading across his face.

"Many people clone themselves for things such as free labor, and they have them modified to age twice, even three to four times as fast. I want the first clone for myself. Unmodified." Summer declared, narrowing her eyes and sharpening her tone. The doctor just smiled and nodded.

"Of course, of course. As per usual, the first clone, the one you're taking in as your daughter, I presume? We will use a full milliliter for as opposed to a normal ten nanoliters... but are you entirely sure you want her unmodified? Modification isn't restricted to quickened aging, you know." He stated.

"...explain, please?" Tai pressed, receiving a nod from the doctor.

"Modification can do a variety of things, they fall into several specific categories, with some being that you're able to combine traits, others not. Keep in mind, many of these traits may give your child an advantage or disadvantage over her peers later on in life, dependent on what you choose. It's all detailed in a set of charts we've made." He explained, eliciting small 'oh's from the two lovers.

"Very well then," Summer continued, "show us these modification charts."

The doctor pulled up five different charts on his data pad, all color coded and properly labeled. The first one was an orange chart, with several boxes in it. "This first box is physical attributes. You can make her stronger or faster, weaker or slower, bigger or smaller breasts even, or you can leave her unmodified." He two parents frowned at the third statement, and evoked an exasperated sigh from the doctor. "I'm just running through standard procedure, guys, no need to adopt such a hostile look."

The two grunted in slight dissatisfaction, before nodding for him to continue.

The next chart was colored yellow, with several more boxes filling it in. "This one is mental. You can limit her individuality, make her more docile, or you can heighten her individuality beyond that of a normal human, make her more aggressive, etc. You can even tweak what she will later like or dislike, should you so choose to make such a choice."

The third box was blue, with twelve boxes in it. "This one is senses. You can choose to tweak any given sense, make it stronger or weaker, or you can choose to improve or weaken all senses, though it won't have as profound effect as picking a single sense.

The third one was pink, though this time instead of boxes they were hearts. "Now, I know this is the last thing either of you will want to be thinking about as parents, but if the child takes after you at all, Taiyang, this might be very important later on. Here, you can choose to make her fertile or infertile, naturally lubricated or unchanged, or have more capacity for ease with larger-"

"We get it, we get it!" Both parents blurted out with furious looks on their faces, Tai covering up his daughter's ears.

"Apologies, just another bit of procedure, I'm sure you understand... you can chose two traits here. If you do not mark for fertile or infertile, it'll be random. If you don't chose for one of the other two, it'll naturally be a "no." Anyways, moving on..."

He then pulled up the last chart, this one black with boxes like the original three.

"This last one is the area where you're gonna want to pay the most attention. You can choose to give the child one special trait, unrelated to aura or semblance. You have the capacity for heightened combative capacity, heightened technical capacity, or heightened... y'know, given your reaction the previous two times anything sexual was brought up, it may be best to just leave this one out... or you can lower her capacity for a certain area. However, you cannot choose more than one, as that can, and will, kill the clone in her infancy."

The two parents nodded slowly, before quietly discussing between themselves...

"Well... let's start with the first, Tai, which do you think is most important?" Summer said in a low, hushed voice.

"Well, if she works out enough, she won't need the extra strength, but speed is something that will serve her well anywhere she goes." Taiyang replied, getting a nod of agreement with the girl. "What about... uh... brea-"

"Let's make em bigger." Summer said with a mischievous smirk.

"Wha?! Why?!."

"I want my daughter to one-up Raven." She confidently answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"...alright... now, mental... I'm thinking heightened individuality, but let's not tweak anything else." Summer simply grinned in agreement. "Now, senses..."

**"HEIGHTEN ALL THE SENSES." **

"Welp, If upper management says so... now, dear god, I'm gonna hate this, but... sexual?" Taiyang gulped, getting Summer to scratch her chin in thought...

"Well, I'd rather my daughter be able to conceive, should she so choose... and lubrication would save her time and money, and likely make whatever venture she does get into more pleas-."

"I cannot believe you just said that, Summer." Taiyang deadpanned, interrupting her and getting the girl to just shrug nonchalantly.

"And for the last, she should have heightened combat capacity." Taiyang nodded in agreement, looking to his daughter.

"No arguments here. She takes after us in the slightest, it's an obvious choice... alright then!" Taiyang said, giving a thumbs up and looking to the doctor.

"You've made your choices?" He asked, pushing the data pad towards them.

"Yes, we have. I'll select them..." Summer responded, taking the pad from the doctor. After about a minute, she smiled in satisfaction, before sliding the pad back to the good doctor.

"I take it this is all then?" The doctor inquired, retrieving his data pad.

"Yes, this is all. How long until we can expect our daughter?" Summer inquired, batting her eyelashes cutely.

"Once you've given your first donation of blood, your daughter will be ready to emerge from the pod a full newborn in the average time it would take to conceive after impregnation. However, the rest of the batch will be ready out of the pod within half the time."

"The rest of the batch?" She said curiously.

"Why of course! As soon as you've given us your first donation, you'll see what I mean..."

They followed the doctor to a sort of medical bay where Summer was asked to lay down on a medical bed so they could draw her blood. After that was done, they gave the girl a water bottle and the doctor gestured the two to follow.

"I'm going to let you know, the only reason we're doing this is because you, Mrs. Rose, are such a renowned huntress. Normally, we'd only take a milliliter for a single Clone then call it a day, but you're a special case." The doctor said as they walked down the halls.

"How do you mean?" The girl of subject asked.

"The Atlesian Military wants a new standing army to replace the current force. People get cloned all the time, but very rarely do we get a hunter or huntress, even less often do we get one with such a reputation as your own. And we've never, ever gotten anyone with silver eyes come through here. You're the perfect fit for what we need."

"Oh... I see. What about their training, then?"

"The Atlesian Military is willing to pay a great sum of money, should you decide to oversee their training personally, after all, your reputation isn't earned for no reason." The doctor finished, stopping before some metal garage door-looking blinds. "If you're wondering about equipment, the Schnee Dust Corporation is backing this army, equipment-wise. Additional trainers are already on their way to the facility to begin the process of getting these soon-to-be soldiers ready for war."

"I see... how much is the Military willing to pay for my services? I do still have a family to maintain." Summer inquired, only receiving a ghost of a smile for the doctor.

"I am not privy to such knowledge, only how many zeroes there are behind the first digit before any decimals are involved."

"Hmm..." She stood in thought for a moment, before looking to Taiyang as if looking for an answer in her partner.

"Honey, if you think this is best, then I have no reason to doubt your judgement. Never lead us astray as a team. I'll trust whatever judgement you make." Taiyang said, a warm smile spreading across his face as he rested a hand on her shoulder.

Bowing her head and closing her eyes, she smiled as she thought about it. She did not expect this to be how she would pass on her legacy, but she'd be damned before an opportunity this good passed her up.

"Alright, I'll do it!" Summer declared boldly, a fire in her eyes.

The doctor nodded quietly, before touching a small panel on the wall and raising the upper half of the blinds and lowering the lower half. Yang, Taiyang and Summer all gasped as they several saw massive spires, all brimming with cloning pods...

"Wow..." was all Summer could say, taken aback by the sheer scale of it.

"Mommy, Mommy! Is this how many sisters I'm gonna have?" Yang asked innocently, tugging on the ends of her stepmother's cloak. She simply laughed, before ruffling the small girl's hair and looking ahead. There were so many pods, she couldn't count...

It was magnificent.

"With the amount of blood you've volunteered to donate, we'll have enough material to make one billion clones. However, this facility can only produce some one hundred thousand in a single batch. The other facilities produce the same amount." The doctor explained, making their eyes widen even more.

"One hundred thousand?!. That would triple the size of the military!" Taiyang exclaimed, looking bewildered.

"Three hundred thousand, technically. There's three facilities."

"Yeah, yeah... but that's... that's crazy!"

"Perhaps. The Atlesian Military is only calling for six million, at the immediate moment, and we're producing one of the first Legions for ourselves. A necessary defensive force, I'm sure you understand."

"Right... but what's this army for, anyways? We're not at war." Summer cut back in, seizing the attention once more.

"Not yet. Relations, though they won't say in the media, have been degrading with the empire across the Phantom Sea. Military experts believe War is imminent in ten to sixteen years." A new voice cut in, this one feminine, sounding older than the doctor. They cast their attention back to where the voice came from, to behold a wolf faunas with a chip taken out of her right ear, and a single scar running diagonally down her face. "I'm Lara Sue, head director of this cloning facility. Welcome to Astra city." She said cooly, sauntering towards the couple.

"Ah, Director! I see you've graced us with your presence?" The doctor exclaimed, though was promptly ignored by the woman in question.

"I see you're our donor?" The girl said, less as a question and more as a statement, looking directly at the woman in question.

"Yes, I suppose that would be me. Summer Rose." Summer introduced herself to the director, extending her hand.

"A pleasure." The Director met the handshake. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've much work to do now."

As suddenly as she had arrived, the director had left, leaving the four in the room to idly wonder what the coming months would bring...

* * *

The nine months breezed by in what seemed a heartbeat, leading the two parents and their daughter back to the facility to receive their newborn daughter. The night was dark and stormy, though predictably so, given the nature of the location of the three cities. Lightning danced across the sky, and thunder roared down from the heavens. the heavy downpour was far too intense for a normal umbrella, so the family instead donned cloaks to shield themselves from the intensity of the rain.

Yang was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. She was going to have a sister, and that was a very exciting concept for the energetic blonde. Taiyang and Summer were more composed, though no less excited. They could only imagine how she would be, what she'd become, and all the good she might some day do.

After briskly jogging across the bridge after departing from the shuttle, the family hastily entered into the facility and hung their rain-soaked cloaks up on the racks along the wall. The hall was empty, only occupied by two officers, of which neither moved to try to halt their entry. They were well aware of who they were, and didn't dare try to stand in their ways as the trio stalked down the stark white hallway.

Exiting into some sort of main room with two chairs that dropped down from the ceiling, they were greeted by the wolf faunas, Ms. Sue, who had so abruptly left their presence the previous few times they had been there to give blood.

"Ah, Mrs Rose, Mr. Xaio Long. Welcome back to Astra City. I take it you're here to receive your child?" She stated, more statement than question.

"Yes, that we are. Where is she?" Taiyang blurted out in response. The director simply huffed through her nose with closed eyes, a clear sign of annoyance, before snapping her fingers. A single droid entered into the room, holding an open pod in its hands. Said pod carried a single, wrapped, newborn infant. The baby was asleep, and had not a single hair on its head yet, though Summer immediately warped over and began fawning over it.

"Awww! She's so cute! Tai! what are we gonna-" Summer began, only to get cut off by the director before she could finish...

"This is CT-01-00001. She's augmented for larger breasts, enhanced speed, heightened individuality, heightened senses, fertility, lubrication, and enhanced combative capacity. This is what you wanted, yes?" The lady said, elicting a small frown from Taiyang, and an eye roll from Summer for her rude interruption.

"Yes, this is all we wanted... now..." Taiyang began. "What to name her?"

"Well..." Summer replied, lifting the newborn infant and cradling her in her arms. "How about..."

She stopped for a moment, before actually thinking about it. She began sifting through pleasant memories, stories she'd heard, adventures she'd been on...

Then she remembered it. Her favorite tale as a child growing up, about a small girl in a red cloak who'd brought baked goods to her grandmother and was stalked through the woods by a big bad wolf. She was pretty sure the version she'd read as a child had been highly edited and tampered with, because everyone else said that little red got eaten by the wolf in the end, but she remembered reading that little red had blown the wolf's head to bits with an 8-gauge shotgun.

The red cloak flashed for a moment in her mind. Such a pretty thing, a pretty color. Red

Red...

_Ruby._

"Ruby?"


	2. Chapter 2: The Electric Boogaloo

It did not take long for Summer to realize that working triple duty as a huntress, mother, and professional army trainer wouldn't do, and that she'd need an extra pair of hands. It was a cool winter night, a mere four weeks since they'd brought Ruby home, but within their small house on the island of Patch, the temperature was anything but cool, what with the veteran huntress pacing back and forth angrily in stubborn thought.

"Damnit!" Summer roared, punching the wall and leaving a large indentation of her fist in it. "If I'd put a little more thought into it, I would've refused to train this army... an Army! I already had my hands full with my job as a huntress, bringing Ruby into the world already has me a little overworked, but training an ARMY?!. I'm. So. Stupid!" She growled out, banging her head against the wall.

"Summer, relax. Breathe." Came the calmer, far less agitated voice of her lover. "The solution is pretty simple, just don't accept any more contracts until you've got the other problems sorted out. There! Problem solved!" He stated enthusiastically, though only receiving a long, drawn out sigh from the woman of topic.

"If it were that easy, I'd have done that already, Tai! I've already contracts lined up through to the end of next year accepted!"

"Well... why not ask-"

"Tai, you know she wouldn't listen to me." Summer interrupted, plopping down in the most dramatic way possible into a large, comfy reclining chair.

"She owes you, Sum. Besides, it's not like you can't be charming if push comes to shove." Tai replied carefully, taking a seat next to his exhausted wife. "Or... y'know... bring their whole camp down on top of them..."

She sighed, running a hand through her dark hair and looking out the window into the endless night sky. Spending several minutes in silent contemplation as she weighed her options. It would be too easy to just drop the contracts, but would have rather far-reaching consequences, maybe not for her, but for the people she'd accepted the contracts from. Many would most certainly die if she were to simply drop the contracts. The only real alternative would be to transfer the contracts to another hunter, and with Qrow and Taiyang already preoccupied, she would have to go to her one teammate who she'd hoped she'd never need interact with again...

A long, defeated sigh passed through her lips, followed by the girl allowing her head to droop down and her shoulders to slump. "Can you hold down the fort then, Tai? I'd hate for this all to be a burden on you."

"Of course, don't worry about me! You just go and do what you need to do." Taiyang affirmed, a wide smile cracking across his face.

After a moment of idle contemplation, Summer stood once more, and started heading for the door. Grabbing her sword and it's scabbard, and donning her snow-white cloak, she opened the door to the snow before her and looked back, taking in the sight of their humble little living room, with Taiyang smiling fondly at her in one corner, a fireplace going against the wall to her left, and Ruby's cradle along the wall to her right. Truth be told, she felt rather guilty about pressing her problems onto someone else, and about taking a leave of her family so soon... but she was up past her neck here, and she desperately needed someone to lighten the load...

* * *

It did not take long for her to arrive at the little fortress-camp that was the Branwen bandit clan's home, courtesy of the speeds that her jetbike allowed her to reach. Large, spiked wooden beam posts made up the walls of the camp, with sentries lining the walls every dozen or so meters. The two gate guards had their pikes aimed directly at her as she dismounted her jetbike, and grinned mischievously under the shadow of her hood as she realized that these fools had no idea who she was. Laughing quietly to herself, she began to saunter towards the gate, towards the hapless gate-guards...

"HALT!" the one to her right yelled. "Better empty your pockets and clear out, girlie, before I decide we want somethin' else outta ya!" His statement was met with several guffaws from his nearby comrades. Summer merely rolled her eyes, and placed a hand on the pommel of her sword.

"I'm here to speak to Raven. You will take me to her." She declared, only to be met with further guffaws from the fools before her.

"Girlie, dunno WHO you're talkin' about, but sounds to me like you're lookin' for a real beat down, now... or goin' down some way else!" the man stated towards her, making a lewd gesture with his unoccupied hand. Sighing, Summer decided that a peaceful solution was more or less impossible.

Drawing her sword out of her scabbard, the gate guards backed up a step as she drew forth the black blade. Donning a more sadistic grin, the lady in white thumbed the activation rune on the hilt of her blade, sheathing the blade in a field of cackling silver lightning.

Without warning, Summer darted forward faster than any of her opponents could react, and plunged her blade through the speaker's heart, twisting the blade and pivoting her body around to more easily remove the blade, and followed the movement with a blindingly fast horizontal slash, decapitating the other effortlessly. Looking back up to see the other bandits, she watched as they started to bunch together, forming a tight defensive line. With a quiet chuckle, she darted forward, meeting the defensive line head-on.

A dozen pikes darted forward to meet her, but she paid them no mind as she easily ducked under them and delivered a vicious upward slash to one of the defenders in the first line, severing his arm and and leaving a deep gash running up from his thigh and splitting his head in twain, completely ignoring his aura. Laughing more audibly, she kicked the corpse back into the second line of defenders, before sweeping her blade in a wide arch around her, decapitating or bisecting any unfortunate enough to be close enough for her blade to touch.

Ducking under an incoming cleaver, she backpedaled to avoid the drop of an incoming warhammer, swinging her blade out around her as she passed, cutting the man with a cleaver in two across his abdomen. Quicker than the second attacker could comprehend, Summer gracefully rolled under his second swing and sheathed her blade in his chest. Heaving the body's weight up, she pivoted it around to block an incoming stab from a poleaxe, following with spinning the blade out of her impromptu meat-shield as it was stabbed and decapitating her newest assailant in a single, graceful movement...

* * *

The sentry ran as fast as he possibly could to Raven's tent, knowing for sure their leader must be able to stop this juggernaut. Slamming open the flap doors of her tent, she entered with a panicked look etched across his face, heaving and huffing as he fell to his knees after sprinting harder than he ever had in his life, being made further panicked by the intense glare and obvious annoyance of his chief...

"What. Do. You. Want?" Raven asked with obvious annoyance, a glare playing across her face.

"T-t-t-terribly s-sorry for b-b-bothering you, M-ma'am, b-but some butcher, she ju-just, she ju-"

"SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!" Raven roared, gripping him by the throat and heaving his weight as though he weren't even there.

"She's killing everyone! Everyone! We can't stop her, She's ignoring our Aura!" He swiftly worked out, afraid for his life as Raven's eyes widened in horror and she threw him aside.

"YOU IDIOTS!" She screamed, darting out of her tent to meet the assailant...

* * *

Summer laughed as she slashed out the knees of another warrior, before deftly sidestepping an attack and switching to an underhand grip, letting the attacker's blade bury itself into his comrade's shoulder and cut right through his heart, before a blade black as night buried itself through his back, and the last thing he saw was the blade exiting out the front of his chest. Kicking the corpse off her blade, Summer ducked under another attack, delivering a savage uppercut to the next assailant with her free hand, and swinging around to decapi-

"STOP!" cried a voice, halting her blade from drawing any closer to the helpless bandit's neck. Looking to the source, she saw it was none other than Raven herself, and gave a more cool, relaxed grin towards her old teammate.

"Stop fighting, everyone! There's no point in it." She continued, and Summer watched, somewhat impressed by the response of the bandits as they all broke off from trying to attack her.

"Well, if only it were that simple when I was your team leader!" Summer exclaimed, sheathing her blade.

"What do you want, Summer?" Raven growled, but didn't dare take another step forward. She knew Summer could easily raze their entire camp, and she also knew that Summer had her grossly outclassed in combative skill.

"I need your help, that's what. Got too much on my plate, need someone to lighten the load."

"You've never needed my help before, why the hell would you need my help now?" The more gruff lady questioned, leading Summer to merely wave her finger back and forth.

"You'll learn, but... away from prying ears. Lets go in your tent, we can discuss things there." Summer declared, leading the way as she side-stepped around Raven into her own tent. The black bird named woman pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration and grumbled under her breath, before turning 180 degrees, and following the woman into the tent...

* * *

"...I see..." Raven sighed, before resting her head in her hand as she braced her elbows on the table that separated the two women.

"Well? Whadaya say?" Summer pressed, trying to use her most innocent and cutesy voice like she hadn't just slaughtered a third of Raven's entire clan effortlessly.

"I do... owe you..." she accepted as she slowly growled out the latter words. "But I want compensation for you slaughtering so many of my clansmen!" She turned and demanded, pointing a finger at the white-clad, innocent looking little butcher.

"Don't worry about it, I got it covered... hows a hundred fifty thousand lien sound?" If Raven had been drinking anything, she'd have spat it out all over her old team leader simply out of shock. Instead, the elbow keeping her head up simply gave way and she face-planted on the table before she could recollect herself...

"One hundred fifty THOUSAND!?. What the actual hell, where did you get that kinda money?!." She exclaimed, standing with back erect.

"Atlesian military is paying me for being the donor of the clones, and for training them." Summer answered nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders as she did so.

Raven slowly nodded her head, before turning to face Summer with her back, resting her hands on her hips as she contemplated what this meant for Remnant, and what it meant for her as a bandit chieftain. A clone army, cloned from and trained personally by Summer Rose... and the Atlesian Military was calling for six million. That would be far larger than any army ever amassed in Remnant's history, hailing from the era of Emperor Hoots at a massive one million souls. If they just assigned a single legion, apparently being a whole hundred thousand clones, to this continent, her days as a bandit chieftain would be done, and that's not even taking into account the type of firepower they'll be packing, what with them being backed by the Schnee Dust Company...

"Alright," Raven started once more, "If even half of what you've told me is even half-true, then Remnant's about to enter a new age, one without the threat of Grimm, and without the threat of bandits... and I don't wanna be a bandit in that age."

"Wait, what are you saying?" Summer inquired, a confused look dominating her features.

"I'm saying, that when I've finished these contracts, I WILL be one of the trainers for this clone army! YOU owe ME that much, Summer Rose!" Raven declared, poking Summer's nose and making the woman lean back a bit. "The strong survive, the weak die, and with the introduction of such a massive army, trained by YOU of all people, Bandits will most certainly become the weak, and I refuse to be of the weak!"

The woman who's nose was being poked simply laughed nervously, raising her hands defensively as she backed up. She nodded as she did so, extending her hand back outward to shake Raven's hand, though was promptly slapped away.

"Don't think we're friends again, Summer! I'm doing this to survive! Nothing more, nothing less." She growled, pushing away from the table and grabbing her scroll from her bed. "Just transfer the contracts to me, and once I've finished them all, YOU'RE going to bring me to Astra City!"

* * *

After their brief, but successful conversation, Summer left with a somewhat relieved feeling. Raven leaving the team had affected her more than she cared to admit to her comrades, but now that she was coming back... sort of, she felt as though she'd repaired the fracture within her team, or had at least begun the process. It was an enlightening feeling, but short-lived as she skipped out of the compound, avoiding the many corpses she'd left in her wake and ignoring the hateful and fearful glares being sent her way by the Branwen clansmen. They were irrelevant, of course, and she kinda wished that Raven hadn't stopped her so soon, but what was done was done.

With a triumphant smirk plastered across her face, she hopped on her jetbike, before giving a loud "Tally-Ho!" and a mock salute to the clan glaring daggers at her, before speeding off into the horizon...


	3. Chapter 3: Death Stakes it's Claim

Six years had passed since that fateful day that Summer had given her DNA to the scientists at Astra City, barely over five since they'd been blessed with Ruby, yet if felt like it had all gone by in a flash. Raven had accompanied Summer to Astra City, been admitted as one of the lead trainers, and had come to be Ruby's favorite instructor, likewise with most other clones who were already twice the physical development as her.

Ruby had accompanied Summer every time they'd gone to Astra, being such a necessity as the scientists had needed to do routine medical examinations on her to be sure that she was healthy and the cloning had proceeded without any flaws... well, that and most any Kingdom doctor would outright refuse to service a clone. It wasn't easy being a clone in the Kingdoms, that much was certain.

The Schnee Dust Company, as explained six years prior, had indeed backed the project, but also kept absolute secrecy of it outside of Astra, with Jacques Schnee often bringing his three children with him. Summer didn't like the man, personally, but knew that none of this project would even be remotely possible without his funding, nor would it be possible without the equipment provided by Xonolite Armory, a sort of off-shooting branch of the SDC that specialized in everything arms and armor.

"Ah, Miss Rose, welcome back to Astra City! I take it that you're here for another sample donation and CT-01-00001's yearly evaluation?" A doctor in white inquired to the woman, who had mostly spaced out thinking about other things. Shaking her head back and forth furiously, she looked the doctor in his pale blue eyes, before nodding her head, and setting a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"Yes, I am, and Ruby is here for that much as well, though, if I may inquire, is her little friend here too?" Summer managed to get out without stuttering, getting a warm smile from the man in response.

"Yes, the Schnees have been here for two days, and are planning on remaining here for the remaining three of the week, Ma'am. Would you like me go see if I cannot retrieve her or Whitley?" Ruby, at the mention of that boy, scoffed in distaste. It was no secret that she and Whitley did not get along, not at all. While she got along fine with Weiss, and to a... distant extent, Winter, she by no means wanted any sort of interaction with Whitley. "Well, I suppose that's my answer... I'll go see if Miss Weiss is available. Now, Miss Rose, you already know where the room is for your donation. I'll lead Ruby to the medical evaluation bay."

He grabbed Ruby's hand, and tried to lead her along, though the girl quickly snatched back her hand and swatted away the doctor's hand. She did not like these "Scientists" at the city, and would much rather be left alone. She made this rather obvious, much to the chagrin of the doctors and scientists that called the city home, and though they wanted so desperately to call her a defective clone, to purge her like they did any other clone that showed such blatant "flaws," they knew that she was, in fact, acting just as they'd made her.

Ruby had developed an extremely independent personality early on, and despite only being six, had developed her own, very unique personality. Summer had taken a liking to it quickly, so had her husband and other teammates. Raven in particular spent extra time tutoring her, as she'd developed a quick fondness to the child. "Feisty," Raven had called her. She was not mistaken, and the girl took after her in several aspects.

Stepping into the bay, Ruby immediately cringed and wanted to do a 180 and walk out the room at the sight of all the medical instruments and that cold, damnable metal table. There were two more doctors in the bay, who seemed just as unwillingly there as Ruby was. Ruby, however, wasn't oblivious to the fact that they wanted her terminated. "Defective," they constantly called her... but she was okay with that, if only to piss them off. They wanted to terminate her, but she was well above their reach, and she knew it, relished in their distaste for her, as to her, the feeling was mutual.

"Alright, CT-01-00-" the First doctor began, though was hastily cut off by the child.

"It's Ruby, you know this already!" She growled, pointing a finger at them angrily.

"-001." The doctor continued, his voice straining to keep from yelling at the defective clone. "We're to begin your medical evaluation now, if you'll just lay down on the table." He said through grit teeth. Ruby, though reluctantly, laid down, and allowed them to do all their tests, the blood samples, brain scan and all.

When it, like always, came up with everything being perfectly fine, Ruby decided to excuse herself rather than wait for the doctors to call one of their seniors to take her to her room. She knew the way, and didn't need some idiot in a lab coat to guide her there, dammit!

* * *

She found her room with no trouble and let herself in, immediately plopping down on her bed. The mattresses were comfortable enough that Ruby wouldn't complain, and it was so conveniently placed right next to the Schnee Family's room where her friend Weiss no doubt was. Of course, she had to wait for her mother's return before going over, as Jacques did not allow Weiss or Whitley to go to the Rose Family's room without adult supervision.

Honestly, Ruby was surprised the man allowed Weiss to speak with clones at all. He didn't much seem to like the Faunas, saw them as inferior even, so it made absolutely no sense that he actually seemed to treat clones like people, whereas the rest of Remnant might as well have considered them less than slaves, not even enough worth to be considered property. But Ruby didn't focus too much on it, after all, the minds of men like him were an enigma even she could never hope to comprehend.

It wasn't until about thirty minutes passed that her mother entered, clad in her usual, simplistic black combat gear, her white cloak donned as always. Ruby slammed into her in as strong a hug as she could give, merely getting the older woman to chuckle, before bending down and returning the hug. Brushing Ruby's hair affectionately, she lifted the short girl up and placed her feet first on her bed, looking at the girl with a content smile while looking at her at eye-level. She'd gotten word of Ruby's standoffish behavior towards the doctors, and how she was "too attached" to the name given to her. It only made her laugh, as like always the doctors had not gotten any thicker a skin on them, metaphorically speaking.

"Heya, Rubes! Gave the doctors a hard time, did ya?" Summer inquired happily, receiving an excited nod from her clone daughter. "Hahah, Good girl!"

"Mommy, can Weiss come over? Can Weiss come over?! I wanna show her the designs you made for my future armor! Pleasepleasepleaseplease?!." The girl stammered out, bouncing on her toes and springing up and down wildly from being on the mattress.

"Yes, sweetie, Weiss can come over." She responded, giving Ruby another big hug before setting her down and watching the little red blur rush out the door and knock both loudly and at an insane pace on the Schnee door. Not even a minute later, Ruby sped back into the room, throwing herself on her bed, with a little child in white following closely after her, if at a much more believable speed. She laughed as she watched Ruby rifle through her things in her search for the designs, sitting down in turn at her own desk and beginning to sort through all sorts of paperwork pertaining to training and the results of said training for the entire army on a larger scale...

* * *

It was maybe six hours later, the two girls doing whatever came to mind, from watching television to wrestling on the floor. In many ways, Ruby and Weiss were closer to each other than they were to anyone else in their age group, even closer than Yang was to Ruby... Then again, ruby and Yang weren't so close. With Yang going to Signal, she'd returned with some less than accepting views of clones like Ruby on more than one occasion.

Of course, Yang no longer dared to say such things to the girl in her face. Despite the clear difference in physical development, the augments Ruby was designed with gave her an easy edge over her older sister, an edge she had, as though it were just built into her very nature, exploited to great effect every time. Summer, of course, did not tolerate such opinions, though as far as their dad went? Well, while it was clear that he did love Ruby, it was very obvious that there was clear favoritism towards Yang in him. So to Ruby, seeing that Weiss saw Clones as no different than any other human in the room was rather refreshing, especially considering that her own "Sister" clearly wasn't as tolerant towards clones as even their father was.

"Hmmm... Ruby, I think you should move your marines up six inches." Weiss said, pointing at the point she was thinking of on the holoboard. They were playing a sort of holographic tabletop wargame, with 3D figures of what Summer's clones would look like in full armor and equipped to the teeth, against an AI using models of White Fang terrorists.

"No, that would leave them open to fire from the HA-72Cs on the rooftop ahead and remove their rapid fire bonus, which would be the only saving grace they'd get against the gun." Ruby mused, looking around the battlefield. "You've got two squads further down the street. Divert your flame trooper squad five inches closer to the building's flank so they can burn e'm out and my guys can move up, unharmed."

Weiss sighed, Ruby's more combat-enhanced mind taking prominence once again. She nodded, following through with the strategy and successfully killing the heavy weapon team. Honestly, at times she wondered just how advanced her enhanced mind was, what with her supreme capacity for anything and everything combat related... of course, this came with the catch of her personality that left her as an acquired taste at best...

Of course, she was a far cry from her brother Whitley, which was good enough for her.

* * *

"So, that's the field report?" Raven sighed, bringing a hand up to caress her aching forehead.

"Yes, Ma'am, and as her most trusted adviser, and her second in command, I am happy to report that this means you are the new leading director/trainer of the army!" The doctor said in a cheery tone, a smile present on his face in contrast to the mournful look newly found in Raven's eyes. It had been another three years passed, and at the turn of the decade, 5220, Summer Rose had been assassinated in the middle of Vale. "Ma'am? Are you worried about the Army?" He inquired, finally noticing the look in her eyes after a good minute of silence following his declaration.

"It's hardly the army I'm worried about." Raven muttered nigh inaudibly, looking over to the young girl just behind her, her silver eyes teary as the information of her mother's death was dropped right in front of her, so casually as though she wasn't even there...

"Doctor?" She began, her voice sharpening slightly, showing obvious anger in her tone.

"Yes, Ma'am? Is there any way I can be helpful?"

"Yes, there is... Get. Out." She growled. The doctor quickly bow, and took his leave before the aggressive woman could lash out on him.

A tense moment of silence followed, before Raven stood from her chair in a blur and swept everything off her desk with a mighty roar of rage and anguish. Glass shattered against the walls and ceramic knickknacks smashed to pieces against the tiled floors, papers flew and were scattered across the room haphazardly. She sunk back into her chair after only a few moments, letting her face sink into her hands as she struggled to comprehend the news.

Summer Rose, The Bane of Terrorvex, had been assassinated? She couldn't believe it, it just wasn't possible, she was too strong... Then again, as she'd learned from these clones, strength was hardly the sole deciding factor in a life-or-death situation, and outright wasn't a factor if someone could attack from stealth, undetected.

A shot in the dark had killed Summer from behind, she had read, and while it was still so difficult to comprehend Summer's death, she knew that something like this just couldn't be a fake. Sighing lightly, she turned her chair around to face Ruby, who actively had tears streaming down her face at this point, barely holding physical composure. Said composure was immediately broken when Raven opened her arms, and the young girl fell into her, bawling her eyes out and weakly slamming her fist into the chair.

She sighed heavily, before looking back up, and out the window. It was a dark, stormy night, the waves crashing against the jagged rocks jutting out of the sea and the dull roar of distant lightning and it's light faintly illuminating her features in it's pale glow. The storm was much akin to the inner turmoil of Raven, realizing finally that it wasn't just Summer Rose who had died, it was her partner... her _friend._

"No... oh no..." Raven muttered, just before the doors slid open, revealing two doctors, each with shock batons and handguns. Her eyes widened, realizing just what they were here for...

"Hello, CT-01-00001. We require you to come with us, sweetie." The female on the right said, and the girl immediately began to backpedal, knowing just as well what they were here for as Raven did.

"You will not take her!" Raven roared violently as she dared to tell them off, rising from her chair and pointing at them.

"Ma'am, her guardian is dead. Her adoptive father has already expressed that he'd rather not see CT-01-00001 again. She will not be physically ready for war by the time it's projected to break out, meaning she is, by every mean, defective, and should be terminated as such." She tried to explain, angering Raven even further.

"Have you no Honor?!. Her mother may be dead and father forsaken her, but I will NOT! I will take care of her... now, leave!"

"Summer Rose transferred no rights of guardianship to you, and the father forfeit his. With all due respect, you do not have a say in this matter, Ma'am."

"Oh, I think I do... You can take her... if you can get through me, first." Raven dared, resting her palm on the hilt of her blade. The doctors sighed, before the male on the left touched his hand to an earpiece, immediately followed up with twenty elite clone soldiers flooding into the room, the mighty Hoots troopers. Raven grit her teeth as the soldiers trained their sights on her and the girl. The 100 Hoots Troopers were named after a mighty, no, mythical hero of old, the Hootsman, and lived up to their name. Trained by Raven, Summer, Qrow, Glynda and James Ironwood personally, she knew damn well that she wouldn't stand a chance against all these troopers, not all together.

"Apologies, Miss Branwen, but we cannot have you interfering with this matter. Hoots Troopers, if she tries to stop the execution, gun her down." The female said in a cocky, triumphant tone. The Hoots troopers were silent for a moment, before responding.

"...Yes, ma'am." They replied in monotone, with fifteen training their sights on Ruby, the other five on Raven, the former freezing on the spot at the sight of her own flesh and blood, her own sisters, training their sights on her, the latter grimacing as she reached out and grabbed hold of Ruby's hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Hoots Troopers, Take Aim!" The doctor said contently, a sadistic smirk present on her face. Raven's expression hardened, before closing her eyes and awaiting the inevitable fate her Niece would face at the hands of her own sisters... oh, how cruel fate was...

"Fire!" The doctor cried, a cacophony of blaster fire echoing throughout the room, followed by mortified, bloodcurdling screams...


	4. Chapter 4: The Fourth Chapter

She couldn't help but flinch and squeeze her eyes shut as the terrible symphony of blaster fire echoed through the room, and braced herself for the inevitable fate that awaited her, but found herself puzzled when she felt nothing, not even the heat emanating off from a near miss. Instead, she heard a pair of screams, neither her own or Raven's, accompanied by the sound of bodies slumping against the floor, immediately followed by more blaster fire. Slowly, as if unsure she wanted to know what had happened, she opened her eyes to reveal the two doctors' bodies lying still against the floor, the Hoots Troopers deciding, what she assumed was out of spite, to unload their entire magazines into the Doctors who had ordered her execution.

After about a minute, passed, the soldiers ceased fire, and approached Raven and her new, self-adopted daughter. Immediately, they stood at attention in front of Raven, addressing the older woman with crisp salutes. For a moment, Raven stood there, more shocked than not, before remembering, and feeling like an idiot for not realizing it sooner, that she had trained these clones personally, the realization allowing her features to ease into a cheeky smile. She reclined back in her chair with her hands folded back behind her head as she gave a hearty and jovial, yet relieved laugh.

"Didn't think we were actually gonna take orders from that слабая сука, did you, Comrade?" The closest to her questioned, adopting a more lax stance, resting her XA-22A2, a modified version of the Army's standard blaster rifle, on her shoulder nonchalantly.

"Heat of the moment, don't take it personally, Gaz." Raven quickly explained, the trooper taking off her helmet to reveal features that directly mirrored the now-late Summer Rose's, save for the tattoo of a single tear under her left eye. The Hoots Trooper, like the rest of them, wore double-sided pauldrons, a ballistic waist-cape, and an advanced combat utility pack on her back to signify their status, as well as a rangefinder on their helmets and dark-colored extra plating over her shins, wrists, torso, and her helmet's front was further reinforced. She, like all Hoots Troopers, had personalized her armor, with three symmetrical stripes going vertically down the front and back of her helmet, down her arms and on the side of her legs, as well as diagonally down her waist-cape going down from her rear. The waist-cape itself was a dark grey, like her pauldrons, except on the pauldron's right side the armored plating was colored red. Over her chest, she had three ammunition pouches over her right breast, and a sort of red, 3-pronged leaf with three symmetrical, horizontal lines taken out around the bottom, left hollow. The rest of her armor, like the rest of the army's, was the stark white, as per design.

"So... Captain now, eh? When'd you get the promotion?" Raven asked, remembering that the girl's armor, like everyone else in the room, used to have blue markings, signifying her as a lieutenant.

"General Ironwood oversaw a training exercise, and I just did as I always do. Apparently I stood out to the General... not that I'm complaining, Comrade Raven." She stated, giving the older lady a cheeky wink, before immediately redirecting her attention to the much younger girl, in the room, despite said girl technically being older than she herself was. "Sorry about the scare, sis. Wanted to cut them down in the hallway, but that would've been too conspicuous... not that I think Lara would actually care."

Ruby only nodded, quickly wiping her eyes before returning with a small laugh. She felt somewhat foolish, thinking that these girls would take orders from the doctors. The clones hated them, though wouldn't say such in front of them for fear of being deemed "defective," and being terminated, the one exception to the general rule being in the facility's director, Lara Sue.

"And before you start worrying about us getting terminated, Lara has already promised to turn a blind eye to us killing them... but for now, we need to smuggle you out of Astra. Jacques Schnee has already extended to us that you can take shelter in his family as long as you need... convenient, seeing as we're being dispatched to the Schnee Manor to act as guardians."

"Plan on smuggling her out with you?" Raven inquired, looking down at Ruby. After taking a moment to take in the small girl's appearance, she just smiled and motioned with her free hand for the small girl to go to the troopers. Excited at the prospect of seeing Weiss again, she rushed over to the troopers, giving Gaz as strong a hug as she could muster, eliciting a small giggle from her more developed younger sister.

"Не беспокойся, товарищ. She'll be safe." Gaz assured, ruffling the smaller girl's, much less protocol, locks of hair.

"So... when are you headed out, then?" Raven questioned, smiling fondly at her little soldiers a last time before they'd depart to do their duty.

"Two hours, at 2330. We have to head to the medical bay to get cured of our quickened aging, first." Gaz explained, getting a somewhat Inquisitive look from the older lady. Deciding to elaborate, she continued. "New orders from General Ironwood. He wants all clones to be cured of their accelerated aging at age 9, and put into cryo-stasis pods once they've finished their training unless otherwise needed, at least until war finally calls."

"Ah, I see... so, that means that you might live more than fifty years at most, then?" Raven inquired, receiving a hearty, somewhat morbid laughter from all clones in the room.

"Comrade, it'll be a cold day in Hell before a clone lives any more than twenty!" Gaz replied with morbid guffaws accompanying her claim. "Ruby most likely being the obvious exception." Lowering down to a knee, she took her hand off her blaster and extended it to Ruby, whom eagerly accepted the offer to leave, though not before turning back around to give a last look to Raven.

She knew that this would likely be the last time, at least for a long time, that she'd see her, the woman who'd personally overseen so much of her own training as well as that of the troopers behind her. With a smile on her face, she sped directly up to Raven, giving the older lady one last, big hug, one met in kind...

"I don't wanna go... not without you..." Ruby pleaded, only receiving some small chuckled from the older woman.

"I know, believe me, I know... but it's no longer safe for you here. If anyone other than another clone or Lara learns of your survival, they'll come for your head... I can't have that." She reasoned, spacing herself and the little rose apart. "Besides, your destiny lies outside these walls, outside this army. Your mother lives on in you now, and I know you'll do her proud."

Ruby noted that the older woman was being more tender than she usually was, but she brushed it aside as once more being heat of the moment. Nodding furiously, she then cartwheeled backwards, landing feet-first right beside Gaz. With a last, warm smile, Ruby made her way out the room, followed closely by sixteen Hoots Troopers, leaving Gaz and her own team behind with Raven for a few last moments...

"We'll continue her training, Comrade. Count on it!" Gaz declared, bringing a fist to her heart, before darting out the room with her sisters to rejoin the main group, leaving Raven alone in the dark room. She smiled fondly after them as they took their leave, remembering the years of training these soldiers saw, and sighed. Both proud and worried as they made their way out the door, finally being called to serve as they were born to be.

A few moments passed as she turned her attention to the pair of corpses that so lovingly graced her floor. She cringed as the stench of burnt flesh finally reached her nostrils, opting immediately to breathe through her mouth as she dragged the bodies towards the large glass windows behind her. The nice thing about blasters, she thought, was that they didn't leave any blood to clean up, and made dumping the bodies that much easier. Quickly tying rope around each one's ankles, she then tied a cinder block to each one, and threw then out the window she'd opened. She giggled lightly as one of the corpses splattered against a rock before gravity continued to work it's magic and dragged the corpse down into the water.

Sighing, she looked outwards toward the landing pad, and watched as the troopers quietly stowed Ruby in the back of the gunship...

"Well, it's all up to you now, Ruby. Make it count."

* * *

An hour passed, and Ruby idly waited for her sisters to return, quietly mourning the news of her mother's death, as she hadn't a proper chance beforehand. It was truly disheartening news to the young girl, but tried not to let it shake her. The deaths of those she'd met was no new concept to the young girl but this wasn't just some random person she might've said "hi" to once or twice, this was her mother, the most important person in her life.

To say she was shaken from this information would be a complete understatement, and she silently cried in the back of the gunship, simply wanting the day to end, to curl up under some sheets and forget the day ever happened... but alas, she could not risk dozing off, not yet. If someone were to come out to inspect the gunship, someone who wasn't a clone, she'd have to kill them. Gaz had given her a XA-25A blaster pistol, just in case anyone were to inspect the gunship and find her without it being a clone. While she wasn't opposed to the idea, she didn't want to kill anyone... not yet, at least. She wasn't like her sisters who could unquestioningly kill another living being, but she knew she could do it if it meant staying alive... or at least she hoped she could...

Another thirty or so minutes passed before she heard some loud footfalls against the steel platform lightly coated in a thin layer of rain water. She immediately stiffened up, the blaster shaking in her hands as she tried to make herself small in the corner behind a crate. She silently counted down in her head as the footsteps grew louder and closer, all the way up until she heard them step inside the gunship. A flashlight swept around the area, just going over her head, the crate barely stopping her from being spotted. She wanted to sigh in relief, but the footsteps started creeping closer once more, weaving through the crates and checking behind each and every one of them.

Gulping almost inaudibly, she readied herself to use her blaster, turning it off the safety as she silently waited, coiled and ready to strike. After a few tense seconds, the holder of the flashlight came around the box, and ruby rolled back to put some distance between herself and this person, swiftly leveling their sights and preparing to fire, when...

It was a clone, who looked shocked-er, as shocked as one could look behind a face-covering helmet. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ruby slumped back and lowered the gun. The clone in question only stood silently for a few seconds, before nodding her head in understanding, and reaching into one of the crates.

It was a cup. The clone held it out to the rain and filled it up, dumping out the first bit to clean the cup of any dust it may have gathered, before refilling it and handing it back to Ruby.

"Here. You need to stay hydrated. If they ask me what took me, I'll just say there was a rat to throw off the platform." She said, rising back up and heading back out the gunship and back towards the city. Ruby smiled brightly at the soldier, before greedily guzzling down the water in the cup. It was cool, soothing, and she couldn't say why, but it made being alone that much more bearable...

* * *

Another thirty minutes passed, this time with the 20 Hoots Troopers filing into the gunship. Ruby stood up and smiled towards her sisters. A few of them waved back, but most of them simply nodded and went about taking their spots, Gaz included.

With a wave of her hand outside the gunship, she pulled herself back in as the gunship began to lift itself off the ground, it's twin engines roaring to life. A few seconds later, the large doors on each side of the gunship snapped shut, and the gunship blasted off into the dark, stormy night, allowing Ruby just barely fifteen seconds to look back at the city, her home for most of her life, before the dark clouds around them had completely drowned it out, leaving her in darkness...


	5. Chapter 5: The Beginning of Something

The trip was, excepting the roar of the furious storm around them just outside the gunship, totally silent. The dark hold just barely illuminated by four red lights on the ceiling just by the doors. The Hoots Troopers all stood with one hand loosely gripping their blasters, and the other keeping tight hold of the bar above them. The flight was hardly a smooth one, as the storm only intensified through the night as they glided through the dark skies many dozens of kilometers above the ground.

Ruby had, since the arrival of the Hoots Troopers, moved out from behind the crates, opting to grab hold of Gaz's leg as she was too short to reach the bar above them. She, like the rest of the troopers, was completely silent, though that didn't stop her mind from wandering about what had just happened earlier, and why it had happened. If her mother was truly dead, than what, or more specifically who, had killed her? Why had her father disowned her? Had she done something wrong?

Her mind was racing at the speed of light, idly wondering that if she had done something wrong, what was it she'd done wrong? She could only think of times where she and her technically-not-sister would get into fights and she would (royally) kick her butt. She knew that her father had extreme favoritism towards Yang, but that surely did not mean hated her, did it? Too many questions, too few answers.

And then there were the Hoots Troopers in the transport right now. The Schnee family had always been confident in their own security to keep them safe, so why were these Hoots Troopers, the most elite soldiers Remnant had ever seen, being moved to something so... well, if Ruby were being honest, it didn't make sense that they were being sent to guard a civilian installation when the security there had already proven its ability to defend it.

Then there was the fact in of itself that _Hoots Troopers _were being sent. Surely, if they needed a organized and militarized defensive force, normal Clone Troopers would've been more than enough, and certainly higher in number. The fact that it was Hoots Troopers and not normal clones just seemed, at least to her, to be way too overkill.

Sighing, she looked around the hold at the rest of her sisters, giving them all wide smiles. Having them on board and protecting her certainly made her feel many times safer, made her feel as though she could take on the entire world and triumph. Twenty of the best soldiers in an army of soon to be six million. It was baffling to be sure, and the fact that every soldier in the gunship with her had developed such unique personalities... they were all individuals, and used that individualism to great effect on the battlefield, much like she knew she would some day...

* * *

Arriving at the Schnee manor was truly something awe-inspiring, the sight of such a beautifully and intricately designed mansion, practically a castle. She did not see Weiss anywhere, but already knew well enough that she'd be bumping shoulders with the girl often, which she didn't mind in the slightest. Her father, however, was there, present with a butler by his side. Ruby knew this man, the Schnee family's butler, Klein. He was a stocky man, physically speaking, with a brown, thick mustache and a balding hairline, but Ruby didn't much care for physical appearance of the man, after all, the few times she'd interacted with him, he was like a sort of uncle to her.

"Ah, esteemed Hoots Troopers! I do hope your flight here was pleasant?" Jacques Schnee greeted, being met mostly with grunts and some sighs, with Gaz being the only one to step forward to shake his hand.

"Pleasant? No, but that doesn't bother us. A pleasure, Mr. Schnee." Gaz returned his greeting smoothly, taking his hand and giving a firm shake. "Given that you could've simple requisitioned a legion but you settled for just twenty Hoots Troopers, would I be wrong to assume you've called us for more than just security?"

The man smiled, before nodding and doing an about face, raising a hand to gesture them to follow. "You assume correct, Hoots-22550, but that's a discussion best had in private. The security knows nothing of your purpose here, nor do they know your backgrounds, and I intend to keep it that way... Klein, I would welcome Miss Rose, but I must prioritize getting these Hoots Troopers familiar with the facility and their roles here, so if you'd so kindly show her to her new room?"

The man simple smiled and bowed slightly, before taking her hand and leading her off, away from her sisters. Looking back as he gently lead her along down a separate path, she saw the Hoots Troopers look back to her all the same, giving small waves, nods and thumbs up. With a sigh, Ruby returned her gaze to the man leading her along, wondering what exactly fate had in store for her in this new, markedly colder temperature-wise, home of hers...

* * *

Ruby squealed in delight as the door opened to reveal Weiss idly inspecting a dust crystal, and proceeded to sprint up to the older girl and give as strong a hug as she could possibly muster. Weiss, not expecting Ruby in the slightest, nearly dropped the crystal at the loud noise, and barely collected herself in time to brace herself as to not fall down once slammed into by Ruby. After a small moment, Weiss and Ruby separated, with Weiss looking the girl over a few times before laughing, bringing the girl back in whilst still laughing almost hysterically.

"Ruby! I can't believe it! You're Alive! But how? I'd heard they terminated you when..." Weiss shut up before she could say anything stupid, and just continued to squeeze the girl affectionately.

"Yeah, I was to be terminated, and as far as Astra City knows, I have been... but those Doctors had to bring in Hoots Troopers to execute me, since Aunt Raven was in the way, and they misjudged where their loyalties lied, fatally so... they then smuggled me onto the gunship and now I'm here!" Ruby beamed enthusiastically, finally separating from the one person who wasn't her own flesh and blood that she called "sister" after about two minutes.

Weiss laughed again, just glad that her lil' adopted sister was safe and sound, and laughed some more as she thought to leave it to Ruby to simplify things to such extreme degrees. Leading the girl over to her bed, she briefly explained that they'd be sharing one, as well as other things about the room, such as the wardrobe's location, how things were organized, her bathroom rules, keeping things clean, etc.

Ruby rolled her eyes as she listened to Weiss prattle on about rules and procedure, knowing them all well enough already. Summer had raised her with similar standards to Weiss, excepting the fact that her own was a little more rugged than what Weiss was exposed to. Despite the slight annoyance, she smiled nonetheless, following her older sister around as she explained everything, wondering just what was to come in the near future, now reconnected with the one normal person whom she could actually connect with, the one person of her age and physical development who wouldn't hate her for not being naturally born...

* * *

_**I'm skipping the next six years over their childhood together because I really need to get this ball rolling. If you want a story of that time, I MIGHT make a story on that... eventually.**_

* * *

_Six Years Later..._

Ruby only listened with half an ear as the holoprojector aboard the carrier rattled on about a dust robbery the previous night, opting instead to check over her own equipment, make sure nothing was out of place or missing. She might've cared more about what the reporter was saying if she didn't know first-hand, being at the event they were so animatedly talking about. The only thing that did catch her attention is the tid-bit about so many details being blacked out, with not even a rough description of what she looked like was mentioned. In fact, it's like the story had been edited, with details being changed and removing her presence entirely.

This didn't surprise her, after all, Ozpin had full control over what information reached the news in Vale with things such as this, and it wasn't a stretch to think he'd wanted to disassociate her with any event that might make her more conspicuous, not to mention the fact that the clone army was still a complete secret. War had not yet broken out between the Empire and the Kingdoms, but Ruby was not blind to the tensions. Remnant will burn within the next year, maybe two if they were lucky.

She wasn't doing anything to currently conceal herself, it being not necessary among the crowd she had found herself in. They were hunters, in training, of course, but they wouldn't question her being so heavily armed to the teeth, nor her choice equipment. To any civilian, they'd immediately assume her special forces for Atlas, and while in a sense they wouldn't be wrong, she did wish to remain inconspicuous, at least until war did finally erupt and the army unleashed. Until then, however, she did not officially exist to the public.

Her armor was the same that the Hoots Troopers used, except hers was black with red markings, a single stripe going up from the back of her hands to her shoulders, mirrored on the front of her greaves, though only reaching up to her knee pads. Her waist cape was split in two along the back, the updated Hoots Trooper waist cape that allowed for a greater range of movement. On each side she had a red cross on a black background. Both sides of her double-sided pauldrons were a dark red, and on chest she had a red rose over her left breast, and three ammunition pouches over her right. Her helmet was similarly colored, except the top of her rangefinder was also red as opposed to it's normal grey color, her visor was silver, and the upper half of a human skull was painted in red over the face of her helmet. It worked surprisingly well, she'd found, when trying to intimidate someone.

It didn't bother her, after all, the last thing she needed was civilians staring at her like pigeons any time she walked down the street simply because she was a clone.

The chamber around her, despite the white noise, was rather peaceful. Hunter trainees conversed idly, walking to and fro about the ship, with conversations that did not interest her in the slightest, topics like fashion, celebrities, and their own social lives. They mainly just served, in Ruby's opinion, to draw attention away from herself, something she was quite happy with, being allowed to dwell in her own thoughts for a bit, properly analyze the situation she'd found herself-

"Hey there, Soldier Girl!" A voice exclaimed, cutting through her veil of solitude, successfully eliciting a silent groan in her mind. "Whatcha doin'?"

Ruby turned around to look at the girl, and nearly died on the spot. It was at that moment that she silently thanked herself for her tendency of wearing her helmet wherever she went, for right before her, lo and behold, was her former elder sister, Yang Xiao Long. She was only slightly taller than herself, though she was actively aware that that might not be the case within the next five or so years. Thinking for a split second, Ruby decided it best to be as brief and uninformative as possible.

"Thinking." Ruby said with a monotone voice, returning her gaze out the window.

"Well... You're obviously gonna be a huntress like me, so... I'm Yang!" She said, holding her hand out towards Ruby, oblivious to the fact that the girl she was attempting to converse with was also related to her... kind of. Merely nodding, she turned up the volume on her ear buds she had going up into her helmet, effectively tuning the older girl out. Internally sighing, she scanned the city below her, idly waiting for the ship to reach it's destination...

* * *

Finally arriving, Ruby smiled idly as she finally got to see Beacon Academy in person. It wasn't so imposing or inspiring as she'd initially felt it would be, but by no means meant that she was disappointed by her new home. It was certainly a warmer environment than the manor, even if Mr. Schnee was notably kinder to clones than he was regular humans, which she still knew next to nothing as to why he treated clones so well.

Her blonde bimbo of a "sister" had since departed shortly after Ruby had tuned her out, much to Ruby's own relief. Now, wandering out into the courtyard, Ruby took in the scene around her, noting personnel and weaponry they carried, careful not to look too noticeable as she used her helmet's rangefinder to scan them and their weapons, immediately pulling up and documenting known data about said individuals. However, it would seem today just wasn't her lucky day, as while she was distracted, something bumped into her from behind, followed by the sound of polymer cases tumbling to the ground.

"Watch where you're going!" Ruby heard, barely phased by the cart hitting her, as the owner of said cart came around from behind to see who they'd bumped into. It didn't surprise her to find her adoptive sister, Weiss, who looked shocked for a moment, before collecting herself and rubbing the back of her helmet. "Oh, its you! Sorry about that, Rubes, guy directing the luggage cart must've not noticed you."

"Ah, no skin off my back, Sis. Any of the contents of those cases damaged?" Ruby inquired, helping her put all the cases back on the cart as the girl herself looked through each case, eventually pulling out a cracked vial.

"Ugh, fire dust vial cracked. Got any bonding tape?" Weiss asked, getting Ruby to shake her head as to say 'no.' "Great. Alright, not your fault... but what're we going to do about this?"

"Uhhh... I think I might got an unused vial, let me check..." Ruby answered, sifting through her own bag. She took an extra moment to take a look at Weiss's armor, noting that she must've done some modification to it. Her patterns were mostly the same as her own, except her primary color was white, and everywhere Ruby had red, it was replaced with blue on Weiss, with the exception of some red on the underside of her waist cape. Her visor was blue, with a snowflake adorning the center of her face in contrast to Ruby's skull. Though all this was already known to Ruby, her attention was drawn to the fact that her chest was no longer blank save for the three ammunition cases, a single bluish white snowflake over the grey supplementary armor over her normal breastplate, struck once diagonally. Smiling at the little bits of personalization, Ruby carried on looking for a new vial.

After about a minute, she'd found one, tossing it to Weiss who'd swiftly caught it and started pouring the contents of the damaged vial into the new one, topping it off with a cork and sighing loudly.

"Thanks Ruby. Hopefully we don't have another crash like this!" Weiss exclaimed, receiving a shoulder pat from the younger girl.

"Ah well, we can hope." Ruby chuckled, before looking about and noticing a single person staring at them from across the courtyard, giving them a judgmental look, one of disapproval. Looking a little closer, she noticed her bod twitch a little as her amber eyes continued their efforts to burn holes through her armor. Ruby scoffed, before looking over at Weiss, tapping a button on the side of her helmet so she could more privately converse with Weiss without the risk of prying ears.

"Weiss, there's a Faunas watching us." Ruby said with some suspicion.

"I know, been tailing me since I got here, must've immediately ID'd me and thinks I'm like our father. Tsk tsk, what a hypocrite." Weiss droned in an annoyed tone, rolling her eyes behind her helmet as she did a small stretch. "Think she's ID'd you as a clone?"

"Doubt it, unless she somehow knows about the clone army, our armor should seem completely foreign to her, shouldn't be able to recognize it unless she were one of the few survivors from whenever the White Fang has attacked a SDC holding."

"Tch, as if Ozpin would be so careless to let a Fang into Beacon. Besides, even if she was one, the only thing they know is that Hoots Troopers exist, and they're absolute monsters in combat. If anything, that should make things easier for us, she'll know not to take us lightly." Weiss assured, dismissing the initial concerns. Ruby, after a split second of contemplation, nodded in agreement, before gesturing for Weiss to lead the way to the auditorium. After all, they still wanted to Hear the Headmaster's opening speech...


	6. Chapter 6: The Beginning of Something: 2

The Headmaster's speech came and went swiftly, as did the rest of the day as herself and Weiss quietly ate the dinner that the school had provided them. The meals were fine, though if one were to ask Weiss, they'd likely get complaints about the lack of sauce on the her steak. Ruby, however, didn't so much care about the taste of the food, so much as how efficiently it'd fuel her body for the next few hours. The meal itself was simple, being mashed potatoes with gravy, broccoli, and an 8 oz steak with a glass of water.

Obviously, they had to take off their helmets to eat, which didn't bother Weiss nearly as much as it did Ruby, what with her old sister being in the same room as them. The last thing she needed right now was to be singled out by Yang, be tormented just for being a clone again. She'd done just fine these past six years not being treated like or acknowledged as a clone, and she really didn't want word spreading across the entire campus that she wasn't born naturally like the rest of them, as that would doubtless create all sorts of headaches, pointless and unnecessary struggles, and would make simple things a real challenge.

Looking back at her actual sister, she nudged Weiss's shoulder, leaning a bit closer to speak with her.

"You need something Rubes?" Weiss answered in a hushed tone.

"Let's finish up in here as quickly as possible. Longer we're here, higher chances that Yang will ID me." Ruby said quietly, staying hunched over in attempt to make herself less visible. Weiss simply nodded, before returning to her food, giving her younger sister a small pat on the back and a sigh.

* * *

After dinner, while Weiss changed into more appropriate nighttime apparel, Ruby had just opted to roll out her mat and sleep in her armor. It wasn't abnormal for her to do this, what with the constant training in the Atlas mountains with Gaz, they often needed to set up camp for the night, with her trainer always being rather strict about never disarming oneself in a hostile environment. Normally, a ballroom would hardly classify as a "hostile environment," but it might as well have been one to Ruby, what with her sister only sleeping a few meters from her.

Sighing, Ruby laid out her sleeping bag in total silence, trying her best not to be noticed by that blonde bimbo she used to call her sister. After a few minutes, she'd fully set herself up, and laid out across her bag, letting her mind wander about what she'd do tomorrow, with the initiation and all.

She was already familiar with how Ozpin did his initiations every year, one of the small benefits of being one of her mother's clones and being privy to such knowledge. The whole "landing strategy" concept made Ruby groan whenever it came up, as she herself found such things unnecessarily flashy, impractical... granted, this was coming from someone trained as a soldier, not a huntress, so her views might've been a little skewed.

Nevertheless, she prepared for it, having stowed a jetpack with the rest of her weapons in her locker. She didn't have the luxury of being able to create glyphs like Weiss could, and had no other ways of slowing her descent, so having a jetpack was rather convenient for her. Besides that, she'd armed herself with twin XA-25s and a modified XA-22S, a more compact and advanced variant of the Army's standard XA-22 blaster rifle. With that she also carried various pieces of equipment that any elite soldier would be considered lucky to have in their possession, including a wrist-mounted flamethrower on her right wrist, micro-rockets on her left wrist, a monomolecular hidden blade, concealed in the underside of her gauntlets that she could draw out in a pinch. Various types of grenades, weapon modification tools, really just anything that she'd trained with and found to be effective that she could carry on her person without losing mobility. Whatever the headmaster could throw at her, she was completely prepared for it... well... for most situations she could imagine, at least.

With a content smile as she began to think about the mission, she was able to quickly find sleep on top of her sleeping bag after a loud yawn resounded from her lips, with her sister only arriving shortly after and laying down next to her, just as tired as the girl already laying down. Weiss however, opted to read a little bit from the book she'd brought with her from the mansion, laughing slightly at the humorous situations the main character found himself in. When Gaz told her she needed the book proofread, she didn't expect it to be able to actually make her laugh...

Not far away, Yang sat upright on her own sleeping bag, glaring spitefully towards the girl in black and red armor. She felt so stupid that she hadn't been able to connect the dots sooner, from the familiar visor design to the armor itself. Pure Astra City design, without a doubt. Finally seeing the girl's face during dinner, despite the girl in question trying her damned hardest not to get spotted, confirmed just what she thought.

CT-01-00001, or, "Ruby Rose." She sneered in contempt, scoffing at the idea of that Number actually giving having a name, actually believing herself anyone here's equal, actually believing herself to be equal to any human or faunas. It was so stupid, that that girl was 1. alive, and 2. here, at BEACON, two years early no less! It was outrageous! She was just a number, not even an actual human being, good for no more than the most undignified roles within society.

"Hmph. They should consider themselves blessed that we're kind enough to let their kind lick the gum off our boots." Yang grumbled bitterly, before looking around the room, trying to redirect her focus elsewhere. After a few minutes of looking about, she sighed as she found no such thing, opting instead to lay back down and forget her so-called "sister's" existence as she'd fall asleep. She'd almost done so, when a small tap on her shoulder disturbed her progress towards sleep. With a groan, she turned over, finding a girl with amber eyes and a bow on her head looking directly into her eyes.

"Can I help you?" Yang inquired, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"I saw you staring hatefully at that girl in black Hoots Trooper armor, was wondering if you knew anything about her." She asked, sitting down beside Yang with crossed legs.

"Oh... Yeah, I know about that- wait..." Yang started, before abruptly pausing, and narrowing her eyes at the amber-eyed girl. Hate clones as she may, that army's existence was still top secret, and she wouldn't dare spill the beans about it for fear of her own life. The fact that this girl knew about Hoots Troopers was highly alarming, and she intended to look a little deeper into this. "What the hell do YOU know about Hoots Troopers?"

The girl froze up for a moment, before relaxing slightly and stammering out her modified answer. "I'd overheard some faunas talking about them. Something about a failed White Fang raid on a SDC facility, ran into a single Hoots Trooper, and said trooper killed nearly everyone. They described the armor, and that was what it looked like."

It was partially true, but the fact she'd left out was the small bit about herself being one of the few survivors, along with Adam... but this girl didn't need to know such details. Truth be told, that encounter with the Hoots Trooper still gave her nightmares. The way they fought, how they seemed to be able to perfectly predict everything they would do, the way they killed everything that stood before them so relentlessly, with no remorse... it was like they weren't even human, never a wasted movement, never a misplaced shot, never showing the slightest signs of slowing. She, Adam and Ilia had fought that Hoots Trooper tooth and nail, given all they had, and it wasn't even enough to make the Trooper's breath even slightly uneven by the time they'd exerted themselves so hard that they could hardly breathe.

They were the only survivors of twenty five, all some of the most elite the White Fang had to offer, cut down like cannon fodder when faced with this... this monster taken human form... the three of them had barely escaped with their lives, the mission a failure and the Hoots Trooper yet standing unscathed. The fact that Weiss Schnee and this new girl were were both equipped with their armor terrified her, if she were being completely honest.

Regaining her composure from momentarily losing herself in her own thoughts, she looked to the blonde girl, who was just rubbing her chin with a downward gaze. "Oh, I see... Yeah, I'd heard about those raids, but no details were ever made public save for the massacre of White Fang troops... anyways, what did you wanna know?"

"Who is that girl in black? I saw her earlier, but couldn't pick her out as anyone I could identify." Blake said, leaning in a little closer, catching the barely hidden sneer that the blonde girl showed at the mention of her.

"Bah, a pathetic whelp, shouldn't even be alive. A freakin' clone, not worth either of our time." Yang scoffed, waving the girl off, catching her off guard, before swiftly changing her tone to a far cheerier one. "Anyways, enough about that freak, I'm Yang!"

"Blake." She answered, looking back at the black-armored girl with newfound disgust. "What the hell is a CLONE doing at Beacon? If she's developed enough to be here, she should be working where she belongs, in a Brothel."

"I dunno, but she got admitted two years early... and actually IS fifteen years old." Yang answered, getting a dumbfounded look from Blake, who couldn't believe the latter part of what she'd heard.

"FIFTEEN!." Blake whisper-shouted. "Five is considered old for a clone, most die before their fourth birthday like they should! And how the heck did she get into BEACON two years early, a clone no less doing such!"

"I dunno. She used to be my adoptive sister, but when her mother died six years ago, we cast her out and Astra City stated that they'd disintegrated her. Somehow, seems she cheated death." Yang grumbled angrily, before looking over at the girl in question, who was seemingly asleep, but she couldn't tell because of the mask. Sighing, she looked back over to that Blake girl, only to notice she'd disappeared.

Yawning loudly, she then turned in for the night, not bothering to worry about whatever happened to that girl, instead simply opting for laying right the hell back down, and falling into a deep, loud slumber...

* * *

The next morning was mostly uneventful for Ruby and Weiss, doing their regular morning routines before heading down and arming themselves for the initiation at the locker room. Sighing as she saw her sister pass her, having overheard her little conversation with Blake last night. She seriously hoped that Ozpin would deem such a breach of secrecy worthy of being silenced, and she seriously couldn't fathom spending the next four years with that brainless bimbo who hated her for existing, not that she would be any threat to her in single combat. It wouldn't be a mistake to say that their hatred was mutual.

As soon as she was out of earshot, she turned to face Weiss after slapping on her jetpack, patting her on the shoulder to get her attention. "So, seems the bimbo ID'd me."

"Ah, dammit... you gonna need any help with her?" Weiss groaned with an exasperated sigh.

"If she gets physical? No, she wouldn't even be close to a challenge in combat. Socially? Most likely, yes, I will need some assistance."

That same moment that Ruby sighed, somewhat defeated, a better known figure had stopped beside Weiss, quietly unlocking her locker and bringing out her sword and shield, inspecting them quickly before sheathing said weapons. Immediately knowing who she was, Ruby cracked her neck back and forth, snapping her fingers and pointing to the girl behind her sister, using the cracking of her neck to mask her snap. Weiss turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin, having not noticed Pyrrha before, making Ruby drag a hand down her own mask at her elder sister's less-professionally-trained reaction. The girl merely played it off clearing her throat, whilst lightly slapping Ruby's shoulder.

"So Pyrrha, have you given any thought into who's team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual, such as yourself." Weiss said cooly, extending her right hand to greet the Mistrali Champion while using her left to remove her helmet. The girl met her hand, shaking it firmly.

"I'm not quite sure." Pyrrha replied, her voice sounding somewhat meeker than what Ruby had imagined it to sound like. "Didn't really put much thought into it, I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well, I was thinking You, Ruby and I could be on a team together, after all, I'm fairly sure that you and her are the two deadliest students of this year." Ruby simply nodded with a thumbs up behind her older sister.

"That sounds grand, and with such a bold claim as that, I'd be honored if you, Ruby, would spar with me at a later date, perhaps?" Pyrrha said, laughing a little as she did.

"The honor would be all mine, Champion." Ruby said without much emotion, having most of her reply present in the nod of her head.

"Great!" Weiss exclaimed, not noticing the blonde boy walk up between them and rest his hand on her locker.

"Y'know what else is great? Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you." He tried to say smoothly in his attempted cooler voice. Weiss brought her now free hand to her temple and sighed, as Ruby pointed finger guns at her own head, a gesture that surprisingly flew right over the older boy's head.

"Nice to meet you, Jaune!" Pyrrha interjected, only to get pushed aside by the boy in favor of a pathetic attempt to look cool in front of Weiss.

"Yeah, yeah- So, Weiss! couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day!" The boy, Jaune, tried to flex, causing Ruby to nearly burst out in laughter at the lack there-of in any actual muscle.

"Ugh, you've gotta be kidding me..." Weiss droned, snapping her helmet back on.

"Don't worry! No need to be embarrassed! So, been hearin' rumors teams!" He exclaimed, looking directly into Weiss's visor now. "Was thinkin' you and me would make a good one, Whaddya say?"

"Actually, I think the teams are comprised of four students each, so-" Pyrrha tried again, only to get interrupted by the boy.

"Y'don't say- Well, hot stuff, play your cards right, and MAYBE you could join up with the winning team! You too, uh... Red?" Jaune tried, not knowing Ruby's name. Weiss quickly sped between him and Pyrrha, pushing him away a bit.

"Woah woah woah wait! Jaune, it's Jaune, isn't it?" Weiss started. "Have you the slightest clue who you're talking to?"

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel." Jaune stated, leaning in slightly with a corny nickname.

"This," Weiss started, "is Pyrrha."

"Hello again!" Pyrrha said, seemingly enough more cheerful than before.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum Academy!"

"Never heard of it." The boy said, an oblivious look dominating his face.

Weiss sneered slightly, before scoffing and continuing. "She's won the Mistral Seasonal Tournaments, four years in a row! A new record!"

"The what?"

Growling now angrily, Weiss flailed her arms up and down rapidly in anger while explaining to him in the dumbest way she possibly could. "She's on the cover of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

With a loud, overly dramatic gasp, Jaune's eyes lit up as he pointed at her excitedly. "That's You!? They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"Yeah, it was kinda cool..." Pyrrha sighed, Ruby noting that she sounded dejected to be recognized. "Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

"SO! After all that, do you really, TRULY think you've any right to ask HER to be on your team?" Weiss questioned, getting Ruby to snicker a little bit, something Weiss picked up on. "What's so funny?"

"Heheh... S.O., hehe..." Ruby giggled out, getting Weiss to almost break composure at their little inside joke.

"Ga- Ruby, Not Now!"

"I guess not... sorry." Jaune said in a saddened tone, though lifted his head when Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder and complimented him.

"Actually, I think you'd make a great leader, Jaune!" She encouraged.

"D'oh, Stop it!"

"Yeah, seriously, stop. This kind of behavior shouldn't be encouraged!" Weiss tried to reason, only to be promptly ignored by the boy and approached once more.

Ruby, for the most part, ceased listening to the conversation, in preference to simply ready herself with a few stretches before the initiation. She didn't know why, but but something in her just screamed that something was gonna hit the fan today... not in a literal way, at least she hoped. One literal time was already too much...

Hoots Trooper parties could go from werf to not-werf real fast, in her experience.

Eventually, she was taken out of her small stupor as the boy got flung into the back of a locker, arms flailing, and got pinned there by his hoodie via the spear that Pyrrha had thrown his way, quickly followed by an "I'm Sorry!" from Pyrrha. Ruby, unlike Weiss, just laughed at the absurdity of the situation, Walking with Weiss right past the boy, not sparing him a second glance...

* * *

Ruby didn't listen to the instructors as they rattled on about what they'd do, having already known everything about the initiation she needed to know. The cliffside, she could however give credit, was rather scenic, nice to look at the region from. The Emerald Forest spread out far and wide before them like a vast, open field of green and gold, beautiful in it's own way as the wind rustled her canopy ever so gently, swaying back and forth in imperfect unison. It drew a small smile to her face behind her visage of death, before looking to the boy beside her, on the adjacent pad. Jaune was evidently nervous as people started getting launched into the air, though Ruby could honestly care less. Truth be told, she more so expected to see a stain with a mess of blonde hair wherever he landed as opposed to an actual, full person, but she didn't voice that.

Looking to her left, she saw Yang glaring daggers at her, before rolling her eyes and ignoring the bimbo. Looking back at Jaune, She groaned as his questioning of the obvious grew more and more annoying. Clearing her throat, she looked over to him, interrupting him mid-sentence, just as Yang was launched through the skies...

"Time to Nut Up, or Shut Up!" Ruby interrupted him loudly, just before she herself was sent sailing through the skies, crying out in joy as she felt herself flying...

* * *

_**For the one Reviewer who was wondering what phase Ruby's helmet is, it's 1.5**_


	7. Chapter 7: Early Tensions

Blasting off with her jetpack, Ruby grinned madly as she sailed through the skies with a mighty and powerful roar, laughing as she passed by others who'd launched and not even come close to touching down. The forest below her was naught but a blur that she could perceive, and after about twenty seconds of jetpack usage, she finally pivoted her body, jetpack still blazing as she slowed her rapid descent unto the forest, igniting the nearby foliage ablaze and leaving a raging inferno in her wake as she finally came to a full stop. The unfortunate Ursa before her that did finally halt her descent met it's unfortunate end, as she slammed her fist down forcefully in her descent, her fist connecting with the Ursa Major's face at super-sonic speed, smashing it's head to bits and painting the nearby forest in it's remains as the flames of her jetpack scorched the earth and anything unfortunate enough to be within ten meters of her, reducing all but rocks and the ground before her to unrecognizable, ashy, black husks of whatever they used to be.

Rising her head to look up from the crouched position she'd landed in, some smoke rising up from off her fist, she took in the area around her. Everything within ten meters was totally black from the flames burning them, and everything about twenty five meters around her was on fire, with a huge column of smoke rising into the heavens. Behind her, she had no idea just how far she'd come since beginning her descent, but nearly the entire forest in a straight line that she could see behind her was ablaze with a raging inferno.

She chuckled, knowing full and well that her landing would likely attract most Grimm in the area, and that meant that the concept of "little resistance" most likely wouldn't apply for her trek towards the relics. Close howling and roars of the dastardly beasts only served to confirm her suspicions. Laughing internally, she rose from her crouched position, drawing forth her twin XA-25s and sprinting off towards the relics.

She didn't need to use her semblance for something like this, after all, her enhanced body allowed her to sprint near indefinitely at an, as Weiss had described, "Impossibly fast speed." The trek for her wouldn't be a long one as she rushed through the forest, guns blazing as any creature of Grimm that dared stand in her path was gunned down with a precise shot right between the eyes, dropping them instantly. She had her mind focused on two things, and nothing would stand between her, or and either of them.

Them being finding Weiss...

And finding that Relic...

* * *

Yang's attention was stolen by a mighty jet-like roar not far behind her, and the sound of a fiery explosion lashing out at the forest. For a moment, she thought a missile had struck, that the war finally begun, but was relieved, and annoyed, to find it was just CT-01-00001 showing up her descent into the forest by cranking the over-the-top-o-meter up to eleven. Groaning audibly, Yang returned her focus to her battle at hand with the two Ursa.

A small flurry of punches finished each one off, sending their discarded and disintegrating bodies reeling through the forest. She laughed heartily as more showed their ugly faces, only serving as bony punching bags for the ranging blonde brawler.

She was having a particularly good time, when a flurry of bolts sailed over her head as she'd stopped to take a small breath. Tracing the shots, she saw the bolts fly true, each one finding it's mark in an Ursa's head, killing each one instantly. Sighing, she looked over at the shooter, who was busy tangoing with a few dozen Beowulves. She growled with seething anger as she saw CT-01-00001 easily ducking and weaving through claws, as blaster bolts echoed out from her and flashes could be heard among the horde and zipped out, each having blasted clean through a target's given critical area, each shot resulting in instant death for the cannon fodder wulves. It was like the girl was playing with them, not even taking them seriously, not that she herself would, but this was just ridiculous.

Suddenly, a shot flew out, sailing straight for her, Yang panicked, and quickly raised her aura so as to not get a hole blasted through her head. The heat of the shot brushed past Yang's head, and she could feel the intense heat of the blaster bolt as it barely missed her head. Looking back, she saw an Ursa slump to the floor, a blast mark displayed across it's face telling the tale of it's death for a split second, before fading to dust. Shortly thereafter, the shooting stopped, and Yang returned her gaze to the clone, seeing her stand unscathed among dozens of disintegrating Beowulf corpses, spinning her blasters on her fingers before holstering the twin guns on her hips. Yang, unknowingly, was staring directly at Ruby for a few seconds, before her visor turned to look back at her, and though Yang couldn't see the girl's eyes behind the visor, she knew their eyes had met...

Meaning they were partners...

For the next four years...

_Warning: Yang exe has stopped working..._

Ruby rolled her eyes under her helmet, walking up and past the girl...

_Rebooting: 10%_

She stopped, having just passed the girl, noticing she wasn't following.

_Rebooting: 15%_

The hyper-enhanced clone waves her hand in front of Yang's face, snapping a few times.

_Rebooting: 25%_

Sighing, Ruby starts saying something to the girl, getting no response from the girl who's mind just broke.

_Rebooting: 40%_

Ruby brings her hand up and runs it down her face, then starts cracking her knuckles, placing her right foot back a bit...

_Reboooting: 6- Reboot Complete:_

"ACK!" Yang screamed as she fell to the floor, clutching her face as she hit the dirt following Ruby punching her in the face. Spitting out a little blood, she quickly willed her aura to heal her, and looked to the girl in armor who was now rolling her wrist with evident malice in her glare...

"If you're done spacing out and wasting time, I'll repeat myself for the seventh time. We need to go!" Ruby chastised, before walking off towards the relic's location, leaving Yang dumbfounded, and growling angrily after her. The audacity that a Number would speak to her in such a chiding way!

Rising to her feet, she blasted off towards the younger girl, intent with beating some respect of the girl's superior into her. She knew that she vastly outclassed the girl in raw strength, but forgot that Ruby's mind was hyper-enhanced for just this kind of situation, and was retaught the hard way when Ruby turned around to face her.

She stood still as the blonde rocketed into the air and came soaring towards her. At the closest possible second she moved to the right avoiding her punch, grabbing her opposite left arm that was cocked up near her shoulder by the wrist, and jabbed her right leg in the back of her knee.

Yang tried to throw Ruby over her shoulder with her left arm but she struck her right in between the shoulder blades with her knee, knocking the wind out of her and overextending her left shoulder to near dislocation as she kicked out her other leg to where she was kneeling.

Swiftly, she grabbed her other wrist and pulled back hard, replacing her knee with the entirety of her leg and pressing down so the bimbo's face was to the dirt, she upped the pressure with her leg until she heard the poor girl scream.

"STOP!" Yang cried, her shoulders feeling as though they were being ripped out of their sockets. Ruby pressed on her a little more, before releasing the girl, only to kick her back down as she was rising back up.

"Try to assault me again, and you won't live to tell about it. Understood?" Ruby threatened, getting a defeated nod from the older girl. Yang finally stood once more, rolling her shoulders and cursing under her breath as she slowly followed after Ruby glaring daggers into the back of the damned Number...

* * *

About ten minutes had passed, with Yang struggling to keep up with the Number's speed, muttering curses under her breath about the brutal pace that Ruby had set. She was rigorously trained, but seriously! This girl crossed in ten minutes jogging lightly what took Yang ten minutes to full on run! Holding her hand up, as if asking to stop, the girl ahead of her seemingly noticed, and stopped to look back at her, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.

"If you're asking for a break, I'm gonna beat the energy back into you." Ruby said, leaning her upper body towards Yang.

"Not... not a break. Just need to slow down, walk for a bit." Yang explained, getting a loud, annoyed sounding groan from the younger girl.

"I set an easy pace so you could keep up without getting exhausted so that if something did arise, you wouldn't be useless. Do you mean to say that you can't keep up with a light jog?" Ruby inquired, getting an angry look from her old elder sister.

"Light?!. Maybe for a freaking droid, who's programmed to just be another mindless machine with no emotions or personality like you! You're not even human, just a Number, CT-01-00001! Just another, stupid, faceless number that doesn't know her place in the world and has no life outside of training and combat!" Yang argued, getting Ruby to take off her helmet, revealing to Yang the face of the person she was talking to, contorted with rage of her own.

"No Clone is just a Number, Xiao Long! I am not just another number! None of us are!" Ruby yelled, getting in the blonde's face. "We are living beings! One and the same as you or anyone else! We live, we breathe, we love, we hate, we cry, we bleed, we fear, we die, all the same as you or any other human or faunas do! We are not mindless droids, for they are capable of none of that!" She roared, pushing Yang back.

"I remember, Yang!" She roared again, though paused for a moment to recollect herself, and stared back at her old sister with a somber expression. "I remember when I used to be able to call you my sister. I remember when you used to be proud to call me the same. If anyone here is just another number, it's you, for being corrupted like so many by the pointless hatred your 'friends' held towards Clones."

Yang stood shocked still for a moment, her mouth agape, before Ruby promptly did an about face and stalked off back towards the objective again, snapping her helmet back on as her new "partner" shortly after trailed after her.

* * *

Weiss sighed as she looked about with her new partner, the faunas, Blake, being rather snarky towards her, specifically, whilst being rather kind towards an energetic redhead and lethargic ninja they'd encountered along their way. Those two didn't stay long, as they sort have just disappeared after an encounter with four Ursa. On that same note, one of the Ursa had disappeared with them, so Weiss could only imagine they were doing the only logical thing for the situation, and riding that Ursa to the objective. She blamed her thought of such an action being logical on the Hoots Troopers and Ruby, who always found the most unique ways of reaching the battlefield in a timely manner, that she'd long since just ceased questioning the madness and just learned to go with it.

"So..." Blake began, "what's the story with you and that number?"

"Huh?" Weiss responded, momentarily confused by the terminology. "Number? What number?"

"Don't play stupid, the clone. Hard to believe someone like YOU would be so kind to a Clone, a number, given your family's treatment of Faunas." Blake groaned, eliciting a long, drawn out sigh from Weiss.

"Okay, don't go judging ME by the actions of my father. And, on the topic of Ruby, she's my little sister." Weiss answered.

"Yeah, I'm not buying that. Yang already told me about that defective brat. Besides, She couldn't be yours, or any of your family's clone, she looks nothing like any of you, and I already know she was cloned from her 'mother.' Useless number shouldn't even be alive from what I've been told."

"Hmph. Judgmental much? Typical hypocrite, no point in arguing this." Weiss scoffed, continuing towards their objective, making Blake sputter in indignity.

"Hypocrite?!. She's a clone, and I never said anything about anyone judging me." Blake snapped with a sneer.

"May not have said anything, kitty cat, but I know you're wearing that bow to conceal your ears." Weiss stated bluntly, not bothering to face the girl she'd completely caught off guard. "So, you hide your ears so people don't judge you on your birth, yet you judge her on her own birth, and you're not a hypocrite? Don't need to speak words to show your hypocrisy, Blake."

Blake growled, raising her fist for a moment, before letting out a breath she'd held and trailed after her partner, glaring daggers at the girl before her.

"Oh, and Blake?" Weiss began, getting the girl to raise an eyebrow at her. "Ruby doesn't take kindly being called such things. Call her a number again, and you and I are gonna have some serious problems."

"Like we don't already..." Blake grumbled, continuing to follow after the girl.

"I don't hate your kind, Blake, if that's what you meant. I've no problem with Faunas, but I do hate the White Fang. Important to differentiate the two." Weiss said, shutting the cat faunas up as she stilled and her eyes widened, scared of how on-the-dot Weiss was, before shaking the thought off, and angrily storming after her again...

* * *

The two groups did finally meet up at the ruins, with Weiss and Ruby matching each other's jog to the ruins, each clasping the other's right hand and drawing in close to slap the other's back, before separating a bit and giving each other a nod. Ruby quickly looked off towards the ruins, noticing a few chess pieces, though the set was incomplete. The few remaining pieces each had their own stand, being only eight stands. Slamming her fist on top of one of said stands, she managed to make the chess piece bounce up a bit, before slapping it away over to Weiss who easily caught it.

Looking down at the piece, Weiss nodded at the small compliment of giving her queen, before looking up to see Ruby holding king. She laughed lightly to herself, before punching Ruby's shoulder with her spare hand. "How Romantic. Plan on taking me out to dinner, then?" Weiss joked, getting Ruby in turn to laugh as well.

Their two partners didn't laugh at the joke so much as they just stared in disapproval at the mannerisms the two sisters shared, in Yang's case hypocritically so, as they were mannerisms that Yang would mirror with anyone else. Nevertheless, the two picked their own pieces, with Blake choosing a bishop and Yang taking a rook.

The all paused as they heard screaming descend from the skies, and looked up to behold the blonde boy, Jaune, sailing across the skies as if on que with a redhead and a ninja breaking through the treeline riding an Ursa. Weiss simply stared at the duo, before they disembarked from the now-dead Ursa, though quickly lost interest when Ruby started talking.

"Weiss, set up a few glyphs so that boy doesn't become a stain when he hits the tree." Ruby ordered casually, getting an affirming nod from the girl. Barely a second later, a few dark grey glyphs appeared in the sky, and the boy gradually began to slow down, as he hit each glyph, until eventually coming to a complete stop, feet first, on the ground. He sighed in relief, before darting for the ruins as the treeline broke once more to reveal a deathstalker tight on Pyrrha's tail.

"Ugh, I'll bet that boy got her in this situation... Weiss, soon as that Deathstalker gets close enough, freeze it in-" Ruby began, getting cut of by a loud "Caw" from above, and a downpour of sharp feathers. She simply slapped one headed her way away, before nodding to Weiss again, getting her order through. Weiss did just as asked, freezing the entire front of the deathstalker in place as the beast raged and the Nevermore above them responded with another hail of feathers.

Ruby deftly dodged a father by pivoting her upper body and leaning to her left. Looking about at all the new arrivals, Ruby noted that while they could take them here and now, the chances of Weiss and Ruby's partners kicking the bucket if they fought here was too great, and the risks of this position far outweighed the benefits. With a stern look to everyone, who seemingly understood her look even through her mask, she motioned her hand towards a nearby hill, signaling for the group to fall back in that direction. Weiss, knowing that there'd be some resistance from an order given from a clone, quickly motioned the same to get everyone on the same page.

"EVERYONE! Fall back to the ruins Southeast of here, we're at a disadvantage in this location!" She yelled, getting the whole group moving. Looking over to Ruby, she received a single nod of thanks, before the two darted off in the direction they'd planned...


	8. Chapter 8: The First Battle

Despite being the last two to get moving towards the ruins, having to make sure that everyone was actually moving, Ruby and Weiss were the first to reach them, their intense Hoots Trooper training allowing them to more easily break into faster paces on their way to the ruins with less effort than the rest of the group. Swiftly darting behind a pillar together, they each motioned to a group of two the positions to go, with Weiss thankfully motioning to Blake and Yang. The Nevermore was already seemingly roosting atop the ruins which conveniently happened to be positioned directly over a large, gaping chasm.

"Weiss, if we can get to those ruins, we can cut off the Deathstalker. Motion to the others to get moving, I'll have the redhe- er... I'll have the one with a grenade launcher distract the Nevermore to cover out approach." Ruby said quickly, receiving an affirmative nod from her sister, followed by Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake and Yang moving towards the ruins. Ruby and Weiss were hot on their heels, uninterrupted by a hail of fire from the grenade launcher peppering the sky with pink explosions. It did little more than enrage the beast, which sent a hail of razor sharp fathers her way, none of which connected as she deftly ducked, weaved and rolled under all the feathers, returning fire once more.

The mad lady with a grenade launcher continued her standoff for a few more seconds, before breaking out for the ruins with the rest of the group as the Deathstalker emerged from the treeline. Ruby, noticing the girl lagging behind, broke her sprint for the ruins, holstering her blasters and readying a grenade. Thumbing the detonation button, she leaned back, setting her right foot back about two feet, before lunging forward slightly and throwing the grenade hard, sending it sailing through the air.

The grenade landed just about a foot in front of Nora, who's eyes widened as she realized what was thrown. Swiftly, she lunged forward with all her might, just barely clearing the explosive radius as the grenade exploded right under the deathstalker's face, making it reel in agony. Though she'd cleared the explosive radius, she was still caught in the shockwave, which sent her reeling a few extra feet. Her aura tanked the blow, but it'd left her ears ringing, not that it phased her, and she was able to pick herself up and keep moving with due haste, swiftly reaching the rest of the group that had formed a sort of firing line to cover her.

Only a few actually managed to clear the bridge before it was smashed to bits, separating the two groups with Blake, Pyrrha and Ren on one side, and everyone else on the other. Weiss dropped her rangefinder down to scan the remnants of the bridge, before nodding and pointing to Nora and Jaune, shouting out orders over the roaring nevermore.

"Get over there and kill that deathstalker, and send Blake our way!" She roared, the two quickly complying as she herself motioned for Yang and Ruby to get to higher ground. The two complied without argument, with Ruby drawing out her XA-22S as she propelled herself up on top of a pillar, the former simply rocketing up with assistance from her gauntlets.

After a few seconds, Blake had finally managed to join them, finding out first-hand just how tough an elder nevermore's topside was. Landing deftly on a pillar with the rest of them, she quickly looked back and forth, scanning the battlefield for anything useful yet finding no such thing.

"That thing is tough! How are we gonna take it down!?" Blake inquired, an unsure look crossing her face as the Nevermore began to change it's course.

"We hit it with everything we got, that's how!" Yang yelled back, getting Ruby to shake her head in disapproval.

"Really? Well, it's smarter than what I expected you to say." Ruby groaned, before kneeling and taking aim at the Nevermore. A flurry of gunfire echoed out from their position, all of Ruby and Weiss's shots flying true but doing very little to actually effect the massive beast before it smashed right back through the ruins, sending all the warriors falling save for Ruby who had the sense to propel herself into the air with her jetpack, continuing to take pot-shots at the nevermore as she slowly lowered herself back to even ground.

"Didn't work. Ruby, got any ideas?" Weiss yelled over rampant explosions from the other nearby battle.

"Gimme a sec." Ruby said calmly, dropping her rangefinder and scanning over the battlefield, idly making note of battlefield conditions and her own equipment...

_Four of us fighting a Deathstalker, four fighting the Nevermore. We've shotgun-gauntlets, a sword with a ribbon attached to it, most likely akin to an ascension cable in durability... Weiss has Myrtenaster and her glyphs, I have a Jetpack with only five percent of it's fuel left, my guns, my monomolecular knife, grenades, one Thermal Imploder... There's two pillars still standing, adjacent to each other and opening up to the cliff face... That'll do._

"Xiao Long! Get up on that pillar and grab that thing's attention, make it crash into the cliff face then return here!" Ruby yelled towards her sister, the brawler surprisingly complying. "Blake, once she's back, get your ribbon across those two pillars, we're making a sling-shot with this!" The faunas merely gave her an inquisitive look, before moving out to the adjacent pillar. "Weiss, we'll only get one shot at this. Once Xiao Long drives it into the cliff, I'm gonna need you to freeze it in place and return so we can make the shot."

"You've a weapon to kill it?" She asked, readying her rapier as she prepped herself. Ruby simply answered by pulling out her Thermal Imploder, grasping it tightly in one hand.

"I lack the fuel to fly up and ram this bomb down it's throat, but I've enough for one last, high-powered burst. A near explosion from this thing won't kill it, but if it's inside, it's a death sentence. Think you can make the shot this time?" Ruby said in a cheeky manner, making Weiss groan in slight frustration.

"I'm never going to live down Attio, am I?"

"You missed the shot on a Grimm the size of a four story building, so no, you're not gonna live that down." Ruby laughed, making Weiss sputter indignantly.

"I've told you, I sneezed just as I was making the shot!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it, sis, just givin' you crap!" Ruby joked, punching her sister in the shoulder lightly, before looking back to the fight, seeing the beast get driven straight into the cliff. "Go, now!" She ordered, Weiss snapping into action without hesitation.

Using her glyphs to speed herself up, blazing past Yang being perceptible as naught but a blur as she passed, she leapt up high, before stabbing her blade into the ground below the beast, encasing it's tail end in ice. Immediately she raced back towards the team, barely managing to beat Yang back to the group. Within seconds, the slingshot was up, and Weiss utilized another glyph to help Ruby bounce up into the ribbon, before summoning another glyph to hold Ruby back so she could take aim.

"Remember, we're looking to just barely clip it's head, the imploder will do the rest." Ruby reminded, getting an affirmative nod from Weiss. Quickly setting her Jetpack to a supercharged configuration, she gave a thumbs up to Weiss, who returned the gesture, signaling she was ready. With a deep breath, Ruby closed her eyes and pictured the scene around her for a second... before grinning confidently, and returning her gaze to her target...

"Let's do this!" She roared, with the glyph reducing itself to nothing, Gravity did it's job in propelling the clone towards her target. Without a second thought, as soon as she'd cleared the ribbon, she blasted off her jetpack, blasting off with such force that the stonework around her shattered like glass as she passed. Faster than any could blink, Ruby had driven her fist into the mouth of the nevermore, pinning it to the cliff as the rock before her gave way, sending a spider-web of cracks cascading across the cliff.

Thumbing the detonation key, Ruby kicked off the cliff, Letting Weiss's glyphs slow her descent enough that she didn't become a stain against the stonework when she landed. She barely cleared the implosion, nearly being sucked into the lethal radius as it roared loudly, crushing the Nevermore inwards with a loud, ear-splitting screech, before exploding outwards, blasting the big bird to meaty, disintegrating bits all over the place, the ladder explosion forcing ruby back down to earth, landing hard on her back and damaging her aura heavily as the stonework around her exploded outwards from her impact...

"...Ow..." Ruby groaned, shortly after being helped to her feet by Weiss, who helped shoulder some of her weight. "I'm beginning to remember why I hate Nevermores so much!"

"Reckless, but it worked... looks like the others finished their fight too." Weiss stated, nodding her head towards the others. With a small laugh, Ruby gently pushed Weiss's support off, walking back off towards the others in her group, before nodding to each of them...

"Well... you didn't slow us down. Not exceptional, but you did... OKAY." Ruby said, before brushing past them, Weiss trailing behind slightly.

"Huh, would you look at that! I think Ruby just complimented you two! That's rare, especially from her! Should be honored!"

* * *

Their return from the cliff was a short, though rather animate one, with Nora chatting loudly about how much she wanted to see more of Ruby's explosives, wanting her jetpack, the normal jazz. Blake and Yang whispered among themselves, though mostly tried to keep to themselves. Pyrrha complimented Ruby on her ability to take charge, and kept in conversation the most with her, Weiss and Jaune. Ren was about as silent as one could be... big shocker.

Though, now in the auditorium, Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Blake all stood shoulder to shoulder, hands held behind their backs and backs straightened as they stood at attention... well, at least Ruby and Weiss did. Blake and Yang were a bit more lax in how they stood. The Headmaster had already rattled off the titles of the other teams that had passed the initiation, them being CRDL and JNPR. Ruby and Weiss still donned their helmets, having developed the preference of wearing them over not from their years of training. The prototype armor was comfortable to them, and them being so advanced served to signify them above others around them.

"...and finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. You four of you showed ingenuity in the field of combat, even for huntresses. From this day forward you will work together as Team RWBY [Ruby]. Lead by..." Blake and Yang held their breathes, hoping it wasn't a specific- "Ruby Rose." Ozpin finished, making their jaws nearly hit the floor. They managed to correct themselves in a split, and glared daggers towards their newly declared leader.

Weiss's reaction differed from theirs, instead opting to bump her fist on the snowflake on her chest twice, before clasping Ruby's hand and bringing her in pat the girl's back. Breaking off slightly, Weiss looked ruby dead in the visor before nodding, a wide smile playing across her face as she acknowledged Ruby's leadership...

"Hell yeah, you and I are gonna kick some ass, that we are!" Ruby cheered, though only loud enough for the people on the stage to hear. Ozpin decided to turn a blind eye to the clone's language, and instead opt to finish up the ceremony as the crowd began to cheer and clap.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year..."

* * *

Getting prepared for night was a bit different, sharing a room with two girls that they practically didn't know, and if they were being perfectly honest, it was a little cramped for their liking. Stowing their armor together in the closet, Ruby and Weiss had changed into more appropriate nighttime apparel, that being a nightgown for Weiss, and the black body-glove that all clone troopers wore under their armor for Ruby, and began actually unpacking their things.

Weiss had brought some extra materials that would make studying easier, including books on the various uses and applications of dust, combined histories of many different wars, journals, some new computers, reading lamps, all the nice amenities that would make studying less like hell. Ruby, on the other hand, essentially brought all the tools and equipment necessary to turn her own desk into a weaponry modification station. She'd also brought various armor modifications that she or Weiss could use, given the nature of any given mission, they'd be able to adapt to it.

The other two occupants of the room just stared idly as the two neatly darted about their side of the room, setting everything they'd brought with them up for later usage. It's not that they had the wrong idea, Blake thought, but they just finished a rather intense fight, and they don't wanna rest? Contrary to them, Blake and Yang were just getting prepared to go to sleep, and weren't too keen on the amount of noise the two soldier-like huntresses were making...

"Hey, could you two, like... keep it down or something?" Yang asked while brushing her hair, only getting a response from Ruby (who didn't even bother to look her way while she spoke).

"We're facilitating the room we'll be living in for the next four years, once we've settled in, we'll tuck in for the night. If that's a problem for you, that's why there's ear muffs." Ruby monotonously replied while hanging up a crimson curtain over their window while Weiss was busy drilling into the support beams of the ceiling and bolting ceiling support hooks in, running steel cables through each one.

"Ugh... Well, then Weiss, at least tell us what YOU'RE doing..."

"Setting up ceiling support hooks in the support beams so the ceiling can support a bed. Room is pretty cramped, so Ruby and I are improvising, at least on our side. If you wanna do the same later, we have enough extra supplies for you to do so." Weiss replied, stating it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, likewise receiving concerned looks from the two.

"Woah woah woah, wait... what if the cables snap, or the ceiling can't support the weight?" Blake questioned with wide eyes.

"That's we're using high carbon steel and bolting it into the support beams. The cables are low carbon steel for greater flexibility, but are still more than strong enough to hold the bed, and any occupants on it, up without any issue." She answered, putting the last bolt through and running a cable through the hook. "Okay, last cable is through. Ruby, you ready?"

"One second... okay, curtain's up. Bed's already on top of yours and I see the cables under it, let me get to the other side and we can lift it." Ruby worked out, before crossing to the other side of the bed and taking hold of the cables. A simple nod was all they needed before they started pulling on the cables, pulling them through and lifting the bed a few feet up. "Alright... nothing to it. Linking mag-locks."

After a few seconds, followed by four loud clicks, the two let go of the cables. The bed held up nicely, much to the surprise of the other two members of the team, and Ruby quickly hopped on to test it out, bouncing up and down a few times before she smiled in satisfaction.

"Alrighty then, that'll do it. Good work, sis."

"Likewise, Rubes. Now that we've got everything important set up, we can worry about decorating with non-essential items tomorrow. Let's tuck in, it's 2330 now, and we've got classes at 0900 tomorrow." Weiss declared, a swift nod of agreement sent her way by the girl.

"Wake up at 0600?" Ruby inquired.

"0600. Agreed, will give us time to get in some early morning workouts." Weiss stated, giving a small salute to the girl, before ducking under her covers as if their conversation were the most normal ever, leaving Yang and Blake sharing dumbfounded looks. These were their teammates? The idea of bunk beads was creative, they had to give, but they weren't expecting, when they got paired with the two, to practically get thrown into the military...

Sighing in unison, the two girls turned in for the night, hoping that those two's declared workout time wouldn't be theirs, too...

* * *

Yang was rudely awakened with the blow of a whistle, right between herself and Blake, and nearly fell out of bed at the sudden outburst. Looking at the source, she found both Ruby and Weiss wearing nothing but their body-gloves, with crossed arms and expressions that said "wake the hell up or we're gonna beat you up." Groaning loudly, Yang cast her gaze over to the clock, which for whatever reason had been converted to military time.

"Get up, ladies. We've got three hours before classes, and I plan on whipping you two into shape enough that you won't slow us two down in the future, over the next few months." Ruby ordered, successfully bringing the two out of bed. "Since you're both already familiar with what a Hoots Trooper is, I'm gonna cut to the chase here. You two are looking at a pair of sisters that have been training under Hoots Troopers specifically for the last six years, and while I don't expect either of you to go toe-to-toe with a Hoots Trooper in any conceivable future, I plan on chiseling you out of diamond until you're at least hanging onto our coattails. Understood?"

"Ugh... understood." The two girls droned, before Ruby blew her whistle again at them, startling them again.

"Get yourselves dressed for a workout, you have five minutes. After that, we'll head down to the mess hall for a light meal, fifteen minutes chow. Post meal, we will be working out until 0800. After all that is accomplished, we'll get ready for classes at 0900. Hop to it, hunters!" Ruby managed to order it all in one breath, and the two immediately set about getting dressed, and Weiss chuckled lightly beside Ruby.

"Think they know that if they'd woken up a few minutes earlier, you wouldn't have blown the whistle at them and we'd have more time for chow?" Weiss inquired jokingly.

"Eh, I'd still have blown the whistle at them... and I thought they would've realized that we'd wake them up too. I thought we'd made that obvious." Ruby shrugged, before doing a few small stretches...

* * *

The meal was so short that Yang had forgotten that they'd eaten at all, as in comparison to the time they spent eating to the time they were working out, it felt to Blake and Yang as though they'd spent five minutes tops eating and spent an eternity doing intense physical workouts, and it was all they could give to not just collapse then and there, trying to keep up with the brutal standards of their partners. Finally, 0800 had struck, and Yang felt a level of exhaustion that she'd not felt in years, likewise to Blake, and both were practically soaked in their own sweat, breathing hard to match.

In contrast to those two, Ruby and Weiss had hardly broken a sweat, and simply made do without any real struggle. They'd trained for years to be the best, and they were flaunting that training without realizing it. After sharing a quick shower, the two stepped out, fully dressed in their school uniforms and checking each other over for any imperfections that the other might've noticed. That process only took about a minute or so, and the two went to briskly skim over their educational materials before the day would start in fifty minutes.

Blake and Yang took markedly longer than the two sisters did, leaving them only ten minutes to spare to get to class by the time they were both dressed and ready to go with all their materials. The two sisters groaned in dissatisfaction with the two, who each still seemed a little short on breath, before gesturing for them to follow them out the door, towards the next class.

"Jog if you want, but don't try to match our pace. You'll exhaust yourselves before you even get to class if you do that." Ruby droned, before jogging off with Weiss towards their first class with Professor Port, their partners trailing after them, if much slower than the two speedy troopers...

* * *

_**A/N: To the reviewer who was wondering in clones have a belly button, we can solve this by a simple roll of dice, 1-3 no, 4-6 yes...**_

_**5.**_

_**Yes, they do have one.**_


	9. Chapter 9: Easing Tensions

The first class they'd found themselves in was, of course, Professor Port's, with Grimm Studies, and though Blake and Yang had arrived just seconds before the bell, Ruby and Weiss had been left with roughly seven minutes before the bell, and quickly set out about getting ready. Notebooks and pencils being all they'd need for this class so far already placed on their desk, they waited patiently for the class to begin, talking quietly among themselves while waiting.

Now, with the class finally in full swing, Ruby reclined back on her chair a bit, sighing as her premonition of the class being a boring one came to pass. The professor was already talking, listing off the various nicknames that the people of Remnant had come to give the Grimm, but neither Weiss or Ruby were fully listening, the ladder opting to draw a few little doodles on the cover of her notebook while the former made rough sketches for a new armor augment. The class was passing by mostly uneventfully, save for the occasional poke from some buffoon above them with a bad haircut, and the sisters had all but given up hope on the class having any redeeming qualities. Well, that was until the Professor called for if anyone among them thought they had what it'd take to be a true hunter, which immediately seized their attention, causing both of their hands to fly up in unison.

"Oh-hoho! Well then, looks like-" the Professor began, though Ruby and Weiss far more swiftly a short game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Weiss managed to come out victorious, giving a small, triumphant cheer.

"Yes! Wooh!" She celebrated, getting a small punch from the redhead.

"Yeah, yeah, just go get yourself ready for combat." Ruby droned.

"Hey, don't get mad at me because you suck at Rock-Paper-Scissors!" Weiss taunted lightheartedly, before jogging off to the locker room to arm herself...

* * *

She was glad Ruby had reminded her before curfew the previous night to put a spare set of equipment in her locker, because she soon came to realize that aside from Myrtenaster, she would've had no other equipment to use in her locker otherwise. Sighing heavily, she laughed it off for a moment before actually starting to equip herself, starting with her body-glove, followed by linking up to her actual armor, then attaching all her extra equipment that gave her that iconic Hoots Trooper look.

She was just about finished, only needing to snap her helmet on, before she felt a tap on her shoulder from behind. With wide eyes, she realized that someone had actually managed to sneak up on her from behind. Swiftly lunging left, she ducked low, drawing out Myrtenaster and slashing horizontally towards whoever had managed the impressive feat, though was stopped short as her gauntlet clanged and locked against metallic greaves, moved only so much as necessary to stop the attack.

"Now now, you wouldn't try to hurt the very clone that trained you, would you?" The figure said, following it up with a slight chuckle. "Nice reaction speed, by the way. Even if your attack was predictable."

Weiss let out a sigh, bringing her blade back to it's sheath. Standing back up and turning about to face the owner of the voice, she let herself crack a small smile as she found herself face to face with a taller lady who looked very similar to Ruby, immediately picking her out as Gaz by the red markings on her armor. She was noticeably missing her helmet, though a quick second look showed the helmet tucked neatly in the clone's left arm. Her hair was short, drawn back into a small ponytail, with a few locks of hair left unkempt just off her bangs.

"Gaz! I didn't expect to see you here, much less in full armor. Aren't you supposed to be back at the manor?" She inquired, easing up some more and cracking her neck some.

"New orders came in from the top. Us twenty Hoots Troopers sent to your manor have been replaced by a small detachment from the 263rd Siege Battalion, and split up among the Kingdoms evenly, three at each Primary Academy, two at each Secondary Academy. Diamond and Domino are here with me, Boil and Burner were sent to Signal." Gaz explained quickly, before looking Weiss's gear up and down, nodding in approval at the small changes the girl had made. "You look good, Sis. The little personal touches suit you."

"Oh, thank you, Gaz! Ruby thought so too!" Weiss beamed, before thinking for a moment, and looking around for a moment. If Hoots Troopers were here, then that must mean... "Gaz, if Hoots Troopers have been deployed, then an attack must be imminent..."

"Smart girl." The more developed clone sighed, before kneeling down. "You're not wrong, but to say 'Imminent?' No, not quite... at least not for a few more months. The clones are being waken up, prepared for their first real deployments. The fleet, likewise, is currently being prepared for a swift, decisive counterstrike as soon as the Empire makes their move... but I can't say too much, not right now. Trust me, you'll know when the time comes, for now, just stay vigilant... and have fun, of course!"

Weiss smiled, giving the clone a brisk salute, before Gaz snapped her helmet on, and stalked out the locker room swiftly. Looking back to her own gear, she gave a small nod, before snapping on her own helmet, and resting a hand on Myrtenaster.

Looking back the way she'd come, her smirk widened as she realized she'd have a small audience watch her kill the Grimm, whatever it'd be, and she was nothing if not a talented showman...

* * *

Ruby watched as Weiss sauntered into the room with unmatched swagger, noticing the girl nod ever so subtly towards her. Rolling her eyes, she opted to recline lightly in her chair, looking down at her sister likely about to butcher a beast, she sent a small wink her way, the smirk on her own face growing wider by the second. Yang and Blake simply looked down at the girl, wondering idly how she'd handle whatever came out of the cage.

"Send that whelp to hell, Weiss." Ruby spoke, receiving only another nod from the girl in confirmation. After a few more seconds, and a raise of the professor's eyebrow, he cleared his throat, raising his axe as he'd seized the class's attention.

"Let the Match... Begin!" He yelled, dropping the axe down and breaking the lock.

Weiss scoffed as it was just another boarbatusk, not even bothering to draw Myrtenaster for the fight. She was almost insulted that it was just raw cannon fodder sent her way, and drew forth her hidden blade from her gauntlet. catching it in an underhand grip, Weiss quickly assumed a ready stance, just in time to meet the Boarbatusk's charge.

It practically wasn't even a fight, as at the last possible second, Weiss had lunged to the left, side-stepping the Grimm easily, and letting it's velocity do the rest of the work as her monomolecular blade easily cut through it's bone plate armor, cutting deep from front to end. The boarbatusk immediately collapsed to the ground, before fading away. Weiss's blade had made a mockery of the bone plate armor, having met virtually no resistance to speak of in the cut. Looking back at the disintegrating corpse, Weiss only groaned in dissatisfaction at the lack of a challenge, before kicking away the upper half of the tusk she'd severed. She wanted to spit on the corpse, but remembered that she was, in fact, wearing a helmet that covered her face, so instead just opted to kick it disrespectfully, before looking back to the Professor who was donning a look showing how impressed he was with the effortless display.

"Bravo! Bravo! It seems we are indeed in the presence of a True Huntress in Training!" He exclaimed, swinging his fist jovially. "Now, I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned reading, and remember! Stay Vigilant!"

Weiss rolled her eyes under her helmet, before stalking out of the room, onward toward their next class. Ruby had gathered her things while the fight was going on, and quickly vaulted herself over the desk and jogged briskly over to Weiss, patting her older sister on the shoulder.

"Killed it back there, Weiss. Figuratively and literally speaking, of course." Ruby cheered, giving Weiss a small thumbs-up.

"Thanks, Rubes. Now, our next class should be combat, right?" Weiss inquired, returning the gesture to Ruby.

"For Blake and Yang, yes. Given our training, Ms. Goodwitch said that attending the class is optional for the two of us... I'm planning on going. Good to keep the skills honed and sharpened, y'know?"

"Hah, as if we don't already put them to use every chance we're given!" Weiss joked, slinging an arm around Ruby. "I'm going as well. Doubt we'll learn much, but there's just something so therapeutic about showing up our peers, y'know?"

Her joke was met with some muted chuckles from the girl, who simply nodded afterwards, gently pushing ahead and leading her team off to the next class...

* * *

The day passed swiftly, leading the team back to their dorm where Ruby finally gave the green light to begin formally decorating. For Weiss and Ruby, this mostly just consisted of laying about small knickknacks to make the room feel more homely. Blake set up a lot of books in their bookshelves, and Yang hanging up a few posters, none of which Ruby recognized.

She didn't bother with trying to decipher some of the messages that the posters conveyed, though did make it set strictly so that they kept those little things like that on THEIR side of the room. She'd personally rather not look up from modifying weapons on her desk to see some guy in a hoodie crouching with a hand over his mouth and donning wide eyes. Though she didn't particularly mind the Faunas putting books about, as some she'd recognized, and some? Well, she was an avid reader herself, and wouldn't mind a good, new book every now and then, after all, there was only so much entertainment one could get from rereading a book on squad based tactics for the twentieth time.

Oh her own side of the room, Ruby and Weiss had also laid out two exercise mats, so they would at least have a dedicated workout station come curfew or the gym be unavailable. It was a simple amenity, but one they would be able to get plenty of usage out of... and an effective means of punishment for insubordination or incompetence from either of their two teammates.

While the two sisters silently prepared the room further, the other two girls of the team had quickly and quietly excused themselves, opting instead to just trek down the halls for awhile to put some space between them, the clone, and the clone lover. Yang's beef was really only with Ruby, and was still bitter over being handled like some helpless child just the day before. Needless to say, she was not a fan of that girl being made leader.

It was absurd! To think a clone, inferior in all rights to their naturally born betters, was leading a team full of people who were naturally born? Preposterous! She would've even taken Weiss as a leader over that thing, and she couldn't express just how annoyed that girl made her.

On Blake's end, while her views miffed the abomination at best, she honestly didn't know how she'd keep her sanity being on a team with a freaking Schnee... Well, given that it was practically Weiss's sister, and proclaimed itself such, she might as well have had two of them on her team... just great. And then there was the fact that they so quickly picked her out as a faunas...

_"What the actual hell." _Blake thought bitterly. _"Nobody has ever seen through the disguise so easily, I mean... Bows are common, and the only ones who've ever pegged me as a faunas despite the bow were other faunas! But with these two, I might as well just not be wearing it! Ugh!"_

Then, of course, the fact came back of their equipment. Hoots Trooper gear. Of freaking course they'd have Hoots Trooper gear, and Hoots Trooper training no less to back that up. That being said, she knew how Hoots Troopers fought, and these two just weren't there yet. They were just lacking a certain grace that the troopers held in combat, their fighting styles, while it was easily the way a Hoots Trooper would fight, in comparison to the one she'd fought, they were somewhat sloppy. Their training must've been incomplete before coming here, and their presence at Beacon was most likely just to hone said skills, build up that smoothness that they lacked.

"Ugh." Yang began, seizing Blake's attention. "I still can't believe that Ozpin named that... that... that FREAKING CLONE, as our leader! It's inferior to us!"

"I think you may need to review the meaning of that word, Yang. While I'm not happy to be being led by a clone, and I'd rather even Weiss lead over it, that thing is undoubtedly a superior fighter to us, and given it was in fact trained by Hoots Troopers, it's likely been trained on how to be a good leader." Blake reasoned, though the admittance of such left a foul taste in her mouth.

"Ugh. Whatever! Lets just go and... I dunno, find SOMETHING to get our minds off that abomination's existence." Yang grumbled, leading Blake back down the halls once more, though both came to a sudden stop when rounding a corner.

Looking up at the new figure, she was clad in the same Hoots Trooper armor that Weiss and Ruby wore, though the colors of her armor excluding personalized paint scheme was the same white and grey as Weiss's. Her visor was black, and she had yellow markings across her armor, in the form of three small diamonds lined up horizontally over her heart next to the three pouches over her right breast. The right side of her pauldrons was yellow, and two parallel lines over her wrists, with her shoulder pads all yellow. Her greaves had a single yellow line descending down from her knee pads to the front of her boots. Her waist-cape was white, with black diamonds dotting each side. Her helmet had the same rangefinder and fin that their teammates had, though the face of the helmet was grey, unlike Weiss's white, and a yellow line descended down vertically over the left side of her face. She was armed with two XA-25s, each holstered on either hip, and in one hand, her right hand, she held a sort of bullpup blaster rifle that neither recognized.

It was glaringly obvious that they were now face-to-face with a Hoots Trooper, one Blake was familiar with. She'd encountered three Hoots Troopers in her time, and barely survived against any of them, though she did memorize their names, burned into her memory from nightmares. This one was Diamond, an absolute monster of a woman, who had stormed several of the White Fang's secret camps a year and a half ago.

While her encounter with Boil was terrible, and her fight against Gaz was a nightmare, Diamond might as well have been a literal demon walking among man. In twelve hours, Diamond had all but obliterated White Fang operations in Atlas, butchering over a five hundred of her kin in that short span of time, and leaving the Atlas branch of the White Fang leaderless.

She remembered how that strange gunship had stopped, and merely hovered over the camp, and descending from a rope they'd lowered, Diamond had repelled down, her gun blazing from one hand. To say she had utter murdered her kin would have been one of the grossest understatements that Blake could've heard, as the Fang' didn't even stand a chance when she had arrived. It wasn't a fight, it was a slaughter, one that she and Adam had barely escaped from with their lives, and not unscathed. She could only pray that she didn't recognize her, after all, in Atlas she was wearing a mask and a hood, but she honestly had no idea just how much each Hoots Trooper knew individually, how much they remembered...

Diamond, looking down at the two girls, narrowed her eyes at Blake behind her mask, but didn't say anything. Ozpin had already briefed her on this girl's presence and how she'd turned a new leaf, but that didn't mean she trusted her, not in the slightest. She knew that Belladonna had escaped her once, and if she showed the slightest hint of treason here, the girl wouldn't escape her a second time, she could bet on that. Snapping her attention over to the blonde, she recognized her as Yang Xiao Long, though held little care for the girl.

Thinking for a moment, she knew that Ruby was the leader they were talking about, and the last thing she wanted was for her older/little sister to have unnecessary struggles with her own team. After another split second, she made up her mind, and pursued trying to ease the hostilities...

"You know, it wasn't like she asked to be leader, and bickering about whatever mistake you believe the headmaster made won't change things, nor will being so hostile towards either of them make you feel any better about it." She said, her voice given a slight metallic tang with her helmet on.

"But... she's a clone! Hoots Trooper training or not, she-" Yang began, only to swiftly get cut off from the Hoots Trooper.

"Had no control over how she was born. Nobody does, clone or not. I can tell you wouldn't treat her the way you do if she were born naturally, would you?"

"I... wouldn't treat her the same as I do, I'll admit... but she's not even a real person! Clones are just... just-"

"Biological droids, right?" She interrupted once more, sighing in disappointment. "I know you more personally than you may remember, Yang, you know, deep down, that some clones are just as human as you are, so I don't quite understand why you LET yourself believe such lies. Tell me, why do you believe such when you know it to be false?"

Yang knew this was just another clone, but Hoots Troopers were... they weren't like any clone she'd met... Summer Rose's clones she was well aware were plenty human, and did in fact build their own personalities unlike the more common clones that she'd see chained to machines in factories or confined to brothels. Those docile clones that dotted factories and brothels against their wills barely had sentience, and their thoughts were restrained to their task, but Summer's clones...

"I..." Yang growled, raising her fist slightly, as though wanting to strike the clone, then relented, sighing and hanging her head. "I don't know. Ruby had said something that got me thinking yesterday, and now..." Yang tried, but sighed in defeat as she found she really didn't have any legitimate answer.

"Hmmm... And Belladonna... how hypocritical of you to judge someone by their birth, yet hide your own heritage so people don't judge you by yours. How about you learn to put your money where your mouth is, hmm? Faunas and clones are two sides of the same coin, in many aspects, which I'm surprised You of all people haven't seemed to figure out by now." She said, making the faunas shrink slightly, a look of fear and defeat playing across her features. Nodding once, Diamond looked both of the two girls down, relishing in their defeated looks, before pushing past them, content on continuing on her way, though stopped herself, noting that there was one last thing to say... and do.

Using her gauntlet, she launched a small nanodart into Blake's arm, immediately getting a small ping on her helmet's HUD on the holomap, titled by her initials, "B.B." The girl of course, didn't notice something so small, and she carried on with what she was going to say.

"Now, do you really think fretting over the mistake you think the headmaster made is going to change his decision or make him reconsider the leader?" The two girls seemingly just hung their heads lower, sighing heavily in defeat. "No, he won't. Those two people in your room are one in the same as both of you... they're both people, like you, and they are your teammates. You'll never work efficiently as a team if you can't even get along, after all." Diamond finished, stalking back off once more...

* * *

The two girls returned to their room around 8:30, and saw their teammates studying the materials given by the Professors during the day, each at their own desk. Yang looked over Ruby's shoulder to find highly detailed notes on just about everything that had been mentioned today, and she honestly had to wonder if Ruby's notes would've been more or less difficult to understand than just copy-and-pasting whatever the teacher said onto paper, but pushed the obscure thought away. She was actively aware that Ruby had to know she was looking over her shoulder, but paid that no mind, as she set her forearms on Ruby's desk crouching down to be at a low enough level that Ruby wouldn't need look up to look her in the eye.

Sighing, Yang struggled on where to begin. Should she apologize? Should she just get straight to the point? After a long sigh, and a few more seconds deliberation, she looked directly over to Ruby, momentarily mesmerized by how the light from the lamp on her desk seemingly reflected off her silver eyes.

"Ruby, I..." Sighing heavily, Yang looked around a bit as she tried to figure how to better put her thoughts to words. "I wanted to apologize for how I've... how I've acted towards and treated you these last few days and... well... when we still called each other 'sis.' It wasn't okay of me, and I understand if you'd rather not forgive me."

"Hmm..." Ruby began, looking over and narrowing her eyes slightly at the girl who used to be her sister. "I will never forgive you for how you've affected my life. You made my childhood from ages four to nine miserable, and your bullying of me, I know, played a major role in why dad didn't want me back. I can never, and will never forgive you for that... but, I can leave the past in the past."

Yang's eyes lit up slightly, before nodding, closing her eyes to dash a few tears away. "I... I think you have what it takes to be a good leader, and a hero for this world... just know, that I promise I'm going to be the best partner you'll ever have, even better than Weiss!" She declared. Ruby shut her eyes for a moment, frowned slightly, and for a few moments, Yang had thought she'd angered the young redhead...

Until the girl let out a small laugh, not opening her mouth as it shifted into a ghost of a smile. Looking over at her sister with one eye as she reopened them, she nodded once, signaling her affirmation. "Alright, Yang... I'm gonna hold you to that promise. Just know, You're in for a wiiiiild ride!"


	10. Chapter 10: The Simulation

The chamber was totally silent, save for the buzzing of the holomap in the middle of the room and the clicking of mechanical fingers against the keyboards of terminals. The room was dark, only illuminated from the hologram and the screens of the monitors, though that didn't bother them, no, not in the slightest. The fourteen in the room were no strangers to environments like these, and while twelve of the inhabitants blankly observed the map laid out before them and prepared themselves for their deployments, the other two busied themselves with the strategizing for the separate operations.

Ozpin, being one of the two strategists, was pinpointing primary objectives for the operatives to hit, while the other, Glynda Goodwitch, was doing the same for secondary objectives. While normally, they would send teams of hunters for each operation, these weren't missions they could trust hunters to accomplish, and even if they could, keeping details meant to be blacked out from arising was always a problem with hunters. No, these operations were dangerous, too dangerous for hunters, too delicate for Hoots Troopers, too. While Hoots Troopers were effective one-man-armies, their trail of destruction was always a little _too_ evident.

Fortunately, the Atlesian Military had foreseen this situation, and prepared teams of clones unlike Hoots Troopers, yet still far superior to their lesser sisters. Each one being a fourth of a whole person, all coming together to form one elite squadron with stealth, sabotage, assassination, subversion, and elite reconnaissance being the name of their game. Their war was not on the frontlines of massive battlefields, but slinking through the shadows behind enemy lines. They were the knife that slit the throat, the bullet that buried itself in the enemy's heart.

Specters, they were hence dubbed. A fitting name, Ozpin thought, for warriors such as they are. It was for these operations that he'd had three Specter squads awoken, and discreetly transferred over to Beacon. There was nobody else he could trust to accomplish such tasks and still keep the whole thing quiet. Hoots Troopers, while he doubted couldn't butcher everything that opposed them if given the missions, lacked the subtlety. Hunters, while he could trust certain teams to be subtle when completing the objectives and the missions at large, he couldn't trust to actually survive the mission, or if they did, to keep silent about it afterward. Though they may not be as individually lethal as Hoots Troopers, Specters hunted in packs to bring down larger prey, in this case, missions, and so silently lived up to their namesakes. The perfect match for the operations Ozpin was having them conduct...

"Echo Squad." He began, garnering the attention of one of the Specter squads' four members. "Your insertion point will be two kilometers east of the oil rig. Your gunship will have the equipment stowed for you to make an amphibious approach. Your objectives have been uploaded to your suits' internalized computers, and your handler has been given the details of your operation. She will guide you through your operation from twelve kilometers up, though expect interference from the storm." The squad nodded, before turning around, snapping their helmets on, and walking down towards the hangar.

"Whiskey Squad," Goodwitch called, the four clones looking over to her, "your target is an ancient missile facility that was abandoned millennia ago. The White Fang have moved in, and we believe they're attempting to reactivate the facility. If they get that facility operational once more, they will have access to a cache of long forgotten nuclear warheads. You will deny them this, and secure those warheads. Radiation leaks from improper handling of radioactive materials drove the original owners out, and still resides. Your suits will protect you from this radiation, but your shields will be deactivated and communication systems will not respond while lingering in the radiation, so expect communication to be sporadic at best... now, report to your handler, she guide you during your op." Contrary to the previous squad, the team simply executed an about face, and marched out of the room.

The two turned to the last squad, nodding solemnly to the soldiers as they awaited their debrief. "Finally, Bravo Squad. Your mission is the assassination of a White Fang Captain by the name of Yūsuf Sabbag. He keeps a small army of White Fang Elites with him at all times. Get in there, silence everything that moves, eliminate Sabbag, and extract from the facility without setting off any alarms. You'll deploy alongside Whiskey, and move three kilometers East from your insertion point to your area of operation. Go now, your handler is waiting." Ozpin quickly explained to the last squad, who like the last two before them, silently filed out of the room, not a word said.

Finally, with the room to themselves, Glynda let out a sigh, letting her arms dangle as she took a seat and let her head roll back. She never did like the idea of this clone army... it just seemed so inhumane. The clones weren't being given citizenship, they were simply bred to fight and die, and they were all, to be frank, just little kids despite their early accelerated growth. The thought of sending what was basically children only nine or ten years old to fight and die in war was just so awful to her, even if the treatment of clones outside of this secret army was markedly worse.

Maybe it was because she herself was one, at least secretly so. The only person who actually knew she was a clone was, after all, Ozpin himself, so she really didn't have to worry for herself. As far as the world knew, she was naturally born, and she had no intention of letting the world know that she wasn't truly so. But that aside, she just wished that this army just wasn't necessary... but alas, it was. Desperately so.

"Hmm... Chin up, Glynda. After all, the army will likely lead the world to be a little more tolerant of clones after they've driven the Grimm of the face of Remnant, and ground the Empire to dust." Ozpin attempted to cheer her up. The woman looked up at him and sighed once more, before casting her gaze to the map.

"These... these aren't even teenagers we're sending out today. Not even young adults... the oldest among these Specters, cryostatis notwithstanding, isn't even ten yet... it's not right." She sighed once more, looking down to the squad markers for each squad on the terminal on the table. "Hunters... I don't have a problem sending hunters out to fight, they chose this path, but clones? They're just child-soldiers fighting a war for kingdoms that despise their very existence without any say in whether they do or do not fight... it's slavery... a slave army of child-soldiers."

Ozpin sighed, before taking a seat next to the woman. "Desperate times call for desperate measures... and before the year is up, things will have never been so desperate." He looked around the room, making out three new figures who stalked in the shadows, watching the two of them with blank stares playing across their visors. Sighing, he gestured for the three of them to step forward and come into the light where he could better see them. He already knew who they were, why they were here, but it simply came down to the thought of just how _long_ they had actually been there. "Hoots Troopers, come forward. We've much to discuss for the assembly tomorrow."

"I don't understand _why_ you want so desperately to reveal us Hoots Troopers so early. Seems contradictory to this whole "secret army" thing." Gaz spoke up, taking a step forward. "Nevertheless, my sisters and I are ready to do our part. I'll do the talking for the three of us, since I'm best with talking to people."

"Understood, Captain. Commander Diamond, will you be overseeing combat simulations?"

"Senior Year, sir." The commander spoke up, taking a step to join Gaz front and center. "Lieutenant Domino will oversee freshman, and Captain Gaz will handle Sophomore and Junior Years."

"Very good." Ozpin affirmed, reclining back into his chair and pressing his fingers together, a smirk playing across his features. "Are the Siege Simulation Arenas prepared for usage yet?" The Vice Headmistress cut in, garnering the attention of the blue-clad Hoots Trooper.

"Yes, they were finished two days ago, but that being said, not all the simulation modifiers are finished yet, nor will they be ready until 0800 tomorrow morning." The trooper, Domino, answered monotonously, crossing her arms as she looked directly at the woman.

"Excellent. Well, I suppose this is as good as we're going to get in one night." Ozpin once more interjected, before looking to all present in the room. "Everyone, you're all dismissed. We'll meet at the auditorium to prepare the stage at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, three hours before the assembly." The Hoots Troopers shrugged, uncaring about the whole thing, before stalking out of the room without so much as a goodnight...

* * *

The four members of RWBY had arrived back at their dorm in good time, not a few minutes behind schedule like they usually did from their morning workouts, which had put two of the four members of RWBY in rather good moods. The morning training hadn't gotten much easier on Blake or Yang, on account of Ruby and Weiss always cranking up the intensity, but they'd at least finally started taking notice of their improvement, which always improved their mood a little. Aside from their morning workout routines, they'd sped up their times in the bathroom, giving the team a decent twenty minutes to get down to their classes before the day started.

Four weeks had passed since they had come into the Academy, and though Ruby wouldn't say she wasn't having fun, quite the contrary truth be told, she WOULD say that thus far she really hadn't learned anything worth mentioning. It disappointed her, to say the least, but she was also actively aware that the year was far from being even a quarter over, so maybe she'd set her expectations a little too high.

As far as how she stood with her team, though, that was a more complicated problem than she'd originally anticipated. Weiss and her were still close as kin, so there was really never any problem there, but Blake and Yang? Well, Yang was still an enigma to Ruby, and though it was obvious that they stood on neutral ground, old habits die hard, Yang was no exception to that rule... but, at least she didn't blatantly disregard orders, unlike a certain other teammate. Blake, she knew was still very against her, and nine out of ten times, she just outright would ignore commands coming from her, much to Ruby's chagrin. Any time she needed to order Blake to do something, she'd have to relay the order to Weiss, first, who would then relay said order over to Blake, who THEN would follow the order, consuming precious time in the field and lowering the team's overall efficiency rating, something both Ruby and Weiss despised.

Fortunately enough, Ruby and Weiss thought so tactically similar, that most times the only reason Weiss would be behind Ruby a little in tactical decision making was due to Ruby's enhanced mind. Thanks to this, their overall ranking wasn't impacted _too_ harshly, only dropping their team to second place in school year division ranking below JNPR. The biggest difference between the two teams is that one of JNPR's guys sucked in combat as opposed to everybody being able to hold their weight in combat in RWBY, and that all of JNPR could actually work as a team, something Ruby truly envied.

Looking over at her teammates, she cracked her neck back and forth, before hopping off her bed. It was Friday, meaning that they had an assembly today after a match. She already knew who was fighting, and she already knew who was gonna win, so she wasn't holding her breath. That boy didn't even pay attention to his aura in combat, so she really hadn't the slightest clue as to why the hell he was even there...

* * *

The fight went about as poorly for Jaune as one could expect, with his opponent, Cardin Winchester, utterly mopping the floor with him. It was embarrassing, to be perfectly honest, and Ruby could only sigh in relief that he wasn't on her team. As she'd expected, Jaune hadn't even paid attention to his aura, and didn't once swap out from a (rather poorly executed) aggressive approach. He telegraphed every strike, which made him incredibly easy to counter, block, or simply dodge. She was, however, glad that it wasn't herself against Jaune. No need to embarrass him any more than he already was.

"Now, remember everyone! The Vytal Festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to participate in the tournament will be representing all of Vale, and all of Beacon!" The Vice Headmistress announced, before three more figures, all armored akin to Ruby and Weiss's armor yet in different colors and pattern choices, marched on stage from behind the curtains, standing shoulder to shoulder. To Goodwitch's right, the soldier had blue markings, an X over the front of her helmet and an upside-down triangle over the entirety of the supplementary armor over her breastplate, and another X on both sides of her waist-cape.

Ruby and Weiss instantly ID'd her as Lieutenant Domino, and were more certain by the blue markings, signaling her rank. Behind Goodwitch, it was Gaz, and to her left was Diamond. They were utterly shook to see the Hoots Troopers being paraded in front of the entire school like they were, considering their very existence was supposed to be a secret outside of mere rumor. Beside Yang, however, Blake looked on with an uneasy stare, knowing quite aptly that those three monsters could literally wipe out everyone in this room, armed or not.

"That being said," Goodwitch continued, "By raise of hands, how many of you have heard rumors of the legendary warriors known as 'Hoots Troopers?'" Glaring around, she saw a surprising number of students actually raise their hands, filling up about nine tenths of the room. "Here today, it will be revealed to you that those are no mere rumors or legends. Here behind me stands three such Hoots Troopers in the flesh! I want you all to meet Captain Gaz, of the 125th Panzergrenadier Battalion!" Idle chatter echoed throughout the room at the mention of the unfamiliar battalion, it's designation, and the reveal of Hoots Troopers.

"I want you Hunters to remember, that against the Grimm or any other foe, we are shoulder-to-shoulder on those battlefields! Brothers and Sisters in arms! And sometimes we may find our own way, but no matter what, We Stand United!" Gaz declared loudly, seizing back the entire auditorium's attention, marching up as Glynda stepped aside. "The first rule, whether in a military force or a team of Hunters, is that We Fight Together!" She brought her fist up to her chest, before pacing back across the stage. "Today all of you will face a combat simulation test. You will not be fighting Grimm, but you will be facing foes that you may well expect to see in direct conflict with yourselves in the near future!"

Some looks of worry etched themselves across many of their classmates faces, but Ruby and Weiss didn't let that phase them. "For this, we'll start with the year that's run all combat simulations so far in record time! Hoots Trooper Time!" She looked back and forth, before setting her gaze on JNPR. "Team JNPR, step up!"

The mentioned team did so as asked, and some confidant smirks played across most of the team's faces. "Lieutenant Domino will lead you, and the rest of your Freshman year to your simulation bay. Show a Hoots Trooper how it's done!" Gaz ordered, and JNPR filed out as Domino passed them by, waving her hand for them to follow. As they passed, the rest of the Freshmen made their turns, and filed out behind JNPR to the simulation arenas.

"C'mon, team. Maybe some of us can learn a thing or two!" Weiss teased, getting a groan from yang and a small growl from Blake...

"Shut up, Weiss." Blake groaned, filing in suit behind Weiss as they followed the herd to their test...

* * *

Ruby could only laugh internally as she saw they were using the Siege Simulation. It was a classic simulation, at least to her and Weiss, that every squad of clones had to pass before they could truly be troopers and not just cadets. They had run it dozens of times together, though having two more in the mix might complicate things, especially when they weren't using uniform equipment. They saw Domino alongside Professor Port in a sort of balcony overlooking the battlefield, with the former nodding her head over towards the aptly-named professor.

The simulation started with a loud, metallic bleep and a flash of red lights over the elevator that dropped the team down. They were all wearing a sort of sim-suit, so that the shots fired by the holographic bots would actually affect them, and their weapons ever so slightly altered to be able to have an effect on the holograms likewise. Holograms appeared at specific points on the arena, all resembling soldiers in uniforms that nobody in the room were quite familiar with.

It didn't matter. Team JNPR, through having three competent warriors and one that was at least a decent tactician, managed to cut through the battlefield swiftly and efficiently, and climbed to the top of the citadel after disabling the guns in the walls, and retrieved the "flag," it's light switching from a red light to a blue one. They managed to do this effectively, with minimal wasted time, and no casualties, much to the surprise of some in the room that Jaune actually got through unscathed.

"Huh, would you look at that." Domino said from up on the balcony as the team passed easily. "Remind be to hit them with version AUX variable 22-72 Gamma next time. Кто следующий?"

"That would be Team RWBY, Ma'am." Professor Port sighed, letting his head drop slightly.

"With Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee? Would be a cakewalk for if we did any normal variant, but what about the others?" Domino inquired, only receiving silence as her reply. "Hmm... Lets not take it easy on them, then. Start the simulation, Version DCX, Variable 92-91."

"Uhm... Might I inquire as to why you're giving them a senior level challenge?" Port asked, bewildered by the Hoots Trooper.

"Ruby and Weiss can handle this without an issue, they've run the challenge on much harder versions and variants without much problem... But I wanna see how their teammates hold up." The professor could only sigh, before complying with the order from the child and sending RWBY on their way...

* * *

"Good luck guys! There's nothing to this one, it's actually really easy!" Jaune encouraged them as he and his team passed RWBY on their way back to the top. Ruby rolled her eyes under her new training-sim helmet, an action Jaune and JNPR could easily see this time, but chose to ignore.

As soon as they'd left their company, Ruby looked back and forth to her teammates, before cracking her neck and bringing up her twin blasters. "Alright guys, fight as one and this'll be a cakewalk. Weiss and I have run this countless-"

"Just shut up and focus on the mission." Blake groaned, receiving a glare from both Weiss and Ruby, but the two just rolled their eyes and looked to the battlefield.

"Weiss, I see you're packing an XA-22A this time around?" Ruby asked, getting a nod from the girl in question.

"Yeah, thought we might need the range."

"Good thinking... Now, ready up..."

They all waited in battle-ready stances as the lights shifted from blue to yellow, signaling that the hologram projectors were adjusting to the new pattern selected. If the span of a few seconds could ever feel like a few years, it was then as they were waiting for the light to shift from yellow to red. The seemingly endless bout of passed time had Blake and Yang slightly worried, but they didn't dare outwardly show it.

Finally, the light turned red, with the shield closing behind them as the field began shifting and holograms began generating. A hail of fire roared after them, but all four girls managed to find cover before they could get hit, each claiming a few kills on their way.

Ruby found herself behind cover with Blake, likewise Yang with Weiss, and they looked around or over their cover to start shooting holograms as they appeared. Their test was markedly more intense than JNPR's, as the holograms were both more accurate, trigger-happy, and numerous than the previous team's, though that only went noticed by two of the team.

She kept her head on a constant swivel as she ordered her team from cover to cover, with Weiss always having to relay the order back to Blake before she would actually listen. This, much to Ruby's chagrin, did not go unnoticed by Domino...

With a few swift hand signals, she had ordered Yang up onto her side and for Weiss to cover her as she and Yang moved to trade sides in more forward positions. Weiss and Blake swiftly moved up to close the gap, now with two Hoots Troopers on one side and two non-Hoots Troopers on the other, but that didn't keep Ruby from signaling them move orders and covering their six.

_"Relaying Orders: Storm the Citadel, Retrieve the Flag." _An announcer above told. Ruby nodded and sign a order to Weiss, who then relayed back to Yang and Blake, getting the two to advance in tandem with the two.

Ruby and Weiss quickly sprinted past a guard tower, rolling behind cover as Weiss popped her sights up and blasted a gunner out of the tower, before looking to the other side of the field. They were fortunate that there wasn't a tower on that side, because Yang was totally focused on what was ahead of her, and not watching her flank. Blake was slightly ahead of her, and Weiss could only swear under her breath as the girl had advanced too far and left Yang exposed.

Blasting a few holograms mid-field along with Yang, Weiss looked back just so much as to see a hologram form behind the girl just as she had to reload. "Yang, Hologram behind you!" She yelled, but the girl didn't react quickly enough, as the hologram blasted her three times in the back.

Ruby had noticed, and blasted the hologram in the face, and looked to Yang. Both she and Weiss were too far to effectively see to her, and she had a feeling that this would be the breaking point of the simulation...

"Man Down! Blake, Get Yang into cover, we'll cover you!" Ruby Yelled at the girl, getting a very unkind hand gesture from the girl involving one finger.

"Forget her! I'm breaking for the citadel!" She roared back, rolling forward and slashing out three holograms.

_"That IDIOT!" _Ruby thought angrily as Blake slashed another hologram... only for the hologram to dissipate on it's own, along with every other hologram on the field. Ruby and Weiss immediately knew what this meant, and both cursed the damned cat's name as they regrouped, the sim-suit giving Yang a shock to revitalize her so she could join them.

"Ugh... that hurt..." She moaned, getting Blake to shrug and the two sisters to simply cross their arms.

"We were so close... what happened?" Blake inquired, taking a small step away from the sisters glaring daggers at her.

"What happened," A new voice cut in, sending chills down everyone's spines, "Was that you broke formation, disobeyed orders, and you left a man behind! You broke Rule Number One." It was Domino, who looked to the sisters. "I am disappointed with both of you, but extremely so in you, Ruby. This is your squad, your responsibility. Your subordinate's failure is your failure." The declaration nearly brought tears to the young girl's eyes, who quickly shut them hard to whisk them away as she clenched her fists in frustration and hung her head in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, girls." Professor Port cut in, lightly brushing past Domino. "But this an inexcusable error for any team of hunters. This is an automatic failure." Ruby and Weiss's already pale complexions if possible turned even paler, and their expressions turned to ones of grief as the words echoed in their heads. Yang lightly pat Ruby on the back, and Blake could only shuffle her foot back and forth and gulp silently as she saw the rest of her team's reaction to the news...

* * *

"DAMNIT!" Ruby roared, punching her locker hard with her bare fist and leaving an indent in the metal door. "The hell is wrong her?!. We failed this because of HER insubordination!"

Weiss sighed as she stowed her own equipment back in her own locker, before looking to Ruby. "Honestly, I've half a mind to request a teammate transfer to replace her. Hell, I'd even take Cardin over her at this rate, at least he's not so blinded by hatred that he'd disregard your orders."

"No kidding." Ruby seethed, growling through grit teeth. Finally, breathing out deeply, she eased her shoulders a bit as she opened her locker door and stowed her own equipment. "But how am I supposed to lead an effective team if one of the members of it never listens to ME specifically? It's infuriating!"

Ruby continued to rant on about how much she despised their faunas teammate while Weiss idly listened to her sister vent, not commenting much overall. However, a few isles down, Blake and Yang listened with some interest. Blake rolled her eyes at the place of blame as herself and Yang stowed their equipment, the former mocking her leader with one hand making a sort of sock-puppet.

"She's kinda right, y'know." Yang said, garnering the raven-haired girl's attention.

"How so? Our failure was hardly my fault." Blake tried to reason, though the blonde shook her head and sighed heavily, rolling her shoulder as she did.

"She ordered you back to help me, and you disregarded her order because she's a clone. I get it that she was trained by Hoots Troopers, and that Hoots Troopers have... well... slaughtered many of your kind, but this is ridiculous, and this is coming from someone who really doesn't like clones herself."

"Ugh!" Blake groaned, pushing past Yang. "She's. A. Clone. Trained by Hoots Troopers. Their very name is a mockery of an ancient Hero, how can I not hate her?!. Quite frankly, I can't wrap my head around how you seem so okay with a monster like her LEADING you!"

Yang was silent for a few moments, before breathing in deeply, and out slowly. The last thing she needed right now was to get angry. "Their title is hardly a mockery. Warriors like them, I'm sure the Hootsman would be proud to know are bearing his name, but... I get it, really, I do. The idea of following a clone, to be perfectly honest, still does miff me, and I would much rather Weiss lead, since she's naturally born." This left a somewhat sour taste in her mouth. She wasn't lying, of course, about her opinion on Ruby leading, but she didn't quite hate her... not anymore, at least. "But that doesn't matter. We're a team. If one of us fails, we all fail. Like it or not, she is our leader, and nothing you do will change that matter. So, please..." Yang pleaded, getting the girl to stop and tense up. After about ten seconds of silence, She looked back to look Yang in the eyes.

"I lost loved ones to those Hoots Troopers. I've lost loved ones to rogue clones. You don't know the pain of hearing that one person butchered six very close friends of yours one day, and the next to hear that a rogue clone killed three more with a car-bomb." A small tear escaped her eye, but she swiftly wiped it away before it could make itself too noticed. "A single one, I can overlook for the sake of teamwork... but both? My hatred for them isn't unfound-"

"I don't know that pain, you're right. But that doesn't excuse how you've treated her! Whatever I had against clones doesn't excuse how I've treated her... how I still sometimes treat her... But she is not the one who wronged either of us! Your reasoning behind hating her is like to say if Weiss hated all faunas because the White Fang specifically has targeted her family!" Yang snapped, getting up in Blake's face. "I'm hardly a role model to look to for this. Hell, sometimes I still discriminate... I guess old habits die hard... But that doesn't mean I let that get in the way of working as a team! So please! Please... Just... Even if you hate her as a person, don't let that get in the way of working as a team. We'll get nowhere if we aren't all in."

With a loud sigh, Blake relented, before running a hand down her closed locker. She thought about it in her mind for about a minute, before moving her gaze to Yang who was locking up her own locker now. "Alright... I suppose you're not wrong... I suppose I've been a bit of a hypocrite too, towards her kind... But, I'll relent, and follow her orders." she strained to growl out those last words through grit teeth, before doing an about-face, and stalking out of the room indignantly...

* * *

**A/N: Wrote while half-asleep. Might Polish later. IDK.**


	11. Chapter 11: Domino

History class was, if Ruby was being perfectly honest, the most dull class she or Weiss had the displeasure to be attending. It's not that the content wasn't interesting, per say, but they already knew everything being covered. From the Great War, the Faunas Civil War, the Hoots Crusades, and even the first and second Clone Wars. The last of the wars aforementioned held a special place in Ruby's heart, though both combined wouldn't be on nearly as grand a scale as the war coming, given that each war was only fought with some hundred thousand clones on either side.

She wasn't oblivious to the fact that much of the discrimination surrounding clones stemmed from the second war. Having one hundred thousand clones invade all four kingdoms at once, and nearly break the kingdoms at that, would probably give one such a bad rep. Nevertheless, that war had been waged nearly a thousand years ago, and the kingdoms' desperate victory had begun the true unification of the kingdoms proper, and led to the discovery of the Empire and the island that used to be territory with the Empire, Menagerie.

Idly, she wondered about the turning point of that war, the Siege of Dunkeld. The hunters, then called "Guardians," managed to invade the island, and raze the cloning facility to the ground, thus ending the tide of clones laying siege to the kingdoms once and for all, and paving the way to victory two years later. That war had ruined the positive image that clones had gained in the first war, which wasn't so much a war against other people as much as it was another Grimm Crusade that played a significant role in the building of the kingdoms.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the ring of the bell, though there really was no helping that. She was vaguely aware of something happening with Jaune that made him look a fool, and of Cardin's remarks. It was all kinda funny in Ruby's mind, though she knew the whole situation between the two boys was causing her sister-team a good amount of grief.

Eh, it really was of no consequence to her, and she wouldn't say she really knew anyone on that team other than Pyrrha on account of Weiss trying to spend so much time getting close to the girl. Jaune was... well, incompetent, to start, though this really was nothing new, and selfish. She hadn't interacted with him, mostly for those reasons, but Pyrrha seemed to be fawning over him, which was really the only noteworthy thing to mention about him aside from being a half-decent tactician.

Gathering her things, she quietly filed out of the room with the rest of her team, following Weiss back to their dorm with her thoughts idly occupied by whatever really came to mind, eventually settling on whether it'd be a good idea to amp her jetpack or not, not noticing Pyrrha whisk the previously mentioned boy away to the rooftops...

* * *

Domino had gotten rather frustrated, getting into an argument with the headmaster for the fifth time in the last three days, and left to idly stalk the hallways of the freshmen dorms. The well-being and training of the freshmen this year was her duty, and she'd be lying if she said she probably didn't involve herself a little too much with the students' affairs. Diamond and Gaz teased her often about it, but a stern hand and cold calculation wasn't the only way to produce effective warriors. It certainly wasn't the way to produce warriors with empathy, warriors that were more than _just_ warriors.

She'd say she took after the woman who she'd been cloned from more-so than the one that oversaw a lot of their other combat training, not to say she disliked Raven. But she always felt that as a person, Summer was always a bit more... human. Kind, compassionate, empathetic, yet still fearsome on the battlefield. She would always strive to be more like her, if partially for the reason that Summer had personally singled her out to become a Hoots Trooper.

So it caused some concern to see the leader of JNPR looking so beaten, sighing as he closed the door to his own room fully. The logical part of her mind told her to jut leave the boy be. He'd brought this whole situation with Cardin and his team on himself, but she was anything if uncaring towards her charges. Apporaching Jaune, she cleared her throat to catch the boys attention, making him jump a bit.

"Having troubles, Jaune? Didn't lock yourself out again, did you?" She inquired innocently, feigning ignorance of his situation.

"Oh, ah, Nope! Got it right here!" He said, pointing to his scroll.

"Hmm... so, I've not seen you with your team much lately. Something is not amiss, is it?"

"No no, nothing is... ah, forget it." Jaune tried to defend, but fell flat and told it straight out. "I messed up, did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin's got me on a leash and Pyrrha won't even talk to me..." He drew a long sigh, before thumping against the wall and sliding down. "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea... I'm a failure."

"Hmmmmm... No, I think not." She replied easily, before kneeling down next to him. "You're a leader, boy... even if you forged your transcripts. You can't afford to fail, not allowed to."

"Wait- you knew about... but... what if I'm a failure at being that?"

"Unacceptable! Absolutely Unacceptable!" She snapped slightly, giving him a light slap across the face. "You may have been a failure... a total failure if I'm being perfectly honest, in the past, but this isn't about you, Jaune. You have a team now, and if you fail, they fail with you. Your failures are their failures, and those three warriors in that room don't deserve that." She took off her helmet, looking Jaune dead in the eyes as he stood in some shock to see she looked so much like Ruby, yet older, more mature, and with a much softer expression than the girl usually held. "As their leader, it's your duty to lead them, and be the example. You must put them first, and yourself second. They deserve a good leader, and I can tell you this much from watching you lead them to such a stunning victory in the Siege Simulation that you've got it in you."

She stood up to full height, offering him a hand up as she snapped her helmet back into place. He took it, and was swiftly hoisted back up to full height, and she held onto him for an extra moment to make sure he'd firmly found his footing. As soon as that was done, she gave him a polite nod, and walked passed him, waving him goodbye as she departed.

"Goodnight, Jaune... and remember, I'll be accompanying you all on your field trip tomorrow."

* * *

The situation the following day had proceeded exactly as she'd anticipated, as a distant roar elicited everyone's attention from within Forever Fall. With a stern glare in the direction of the roar, she dropped her rangefinder to see a Ursa Major practically tearing Cardin a new one, and his teammates fleeing the fight as Jaune watched, seemingly unsure on how to act. Growling lowly, she held up her hand to signal a halt, before gesturing Blake, Yang and Nora forward.

"Detain those fleeing cowards!" She yelled, with the three girls immediately springing into action, taking the three boys down and pinning them to the floor. Looking over to the other four, she snapped her fingers at Ren. "Get the Professor over here ASAP!" The boy immediately sprinted off to find Professor Goodwitch, then leaving Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha left. "The rest of you, fall in on me!"

The three girls immediately straightened out, and sprinted after the clone, all of them trailing slightly behind the fully trained trooper...

* * *

He wasn't nearly so badly injured as they'd expected to find him, but he was evidently in no shape to fight, especially with his weapon knocked away. What he was fighting was an Ursa Major, one of the more Apex-like Grimm that had more than a few years behind them. She wouldn't consider this one a threat, but it was about one step away from mauling one of her charges, so it naturally caused her a little irritation.

A single well-placed bolt would have killed it, but before she could, the beast swung down, only just barely being blocked by Jaune. The action honestly surprised her, as she hadn't expected him to actually do anything. A small smile played across her face, not that anyone could see, before holding her hand up to tell the retinue she'd gathered to halt. As soon as she'd given the command, Jaune had managed to push the Ursa off his shield and get a solid strike against the Ursa. It had, however, responded with a flurry of it's own, with Jaune evading the first few strikes. He had, however, made the mistake of jumping, which had left him exposed to the hit that inevitably came, sending him reeling.

Growling as he picked himself up, he sprinted back into the fight, only to get sidestepped and swatted aside on the flank he'd left open. A small groan could be heard as he rose up once more, and he surprised them all as he actually referred to his scroll to check his aura. Looking back to the fight, the Ursa roared at him, and he chanced a glance over to the Hoots Trooper, who simply gave him a quick nod.

With his confidence restored, Jaune rushed forward, shield at the fore as the beast swung towards him. Bracing himself, his arm shuttered painfully as the Ursa's strike skid across his shield, leaving it open to a finishing strike. With a mighty roar, he swung his blade with all his might, catching the Ursa's soft neck, and decapitating it in an instant.

The kill left everyone honestly shocked, and her small smirk morphed into a full Cheshire cat grin as the boy actually managed to win. She started to slowly clap, impressed by the kill. It wasn't a kill she or any other clone of the army would find difficult to do, but for a person who'd just recently unlocked their aura and had basically no training, it was, indeed, a feat to be proud of, both for himself, and for her.

"Beautiful kill... Ladies, let us depart." She said, waving her right hand to the three girls. She got no argument from them, and they simply made way, Domino listening in as Jaune finally stood up for his team. Some pride surged in her chest, but she opted to just suppress it. The boy had it in him all along, he just didn't know it...

* * *

"You are an enigma to me, you know that, Domino?"

A light chuckle was the response to the declaration, followed by the clone rolling her neck as she reclined in her room. The monitor that the voice had come from was the only thing that illuminated the room, basking her in a pale light as she had opted to direct her gaze out the window to her left.

"Boy's a failure. Decent strategist, for a hunter at least, but hes incompetent everywhere else. Forged documents too, I'd have kicked him out and turned him to the police. What he did there was against the law."

"Perhaps, but my decision on this is final. You outrank me. Sie könnten es außer Kraft setzen, warum also nicht?"

"Last thing I'd want to do is create conflict with my own sister by overruling a decision she'd made on the year she's in charge of." It was a swift, almost monotonous response, but an honest one. "Still, I can't quite say I approve of this decision. I think you're just letting the little details about yourself when you came out of the pod cloud your judgement."

"Maybe. I was the runt of my batch before Summer took me under her wing to become what I am. Perhaps I simply see some of myself in him... Nevertheless, what he did today shows him to not be _Totally_ hopeless, even you must see this, Gaz."

"Tch." It was Diamond who had cut in this time, her helmet removed to reveal her namesake tattooed over the left side of her face. "Forget about him, we have more important matters to discuss. Students from the other kingdoms will be arriving in three days, and we need to make sure we don't have any uninvited guests."

"Expecting something, Diamond?"

"There's people conspiring against us as we speak, and they're not planning on telegraphing their attack. To the Northwest, Salem and her merry band of huoria want to rape the world of all life, and to the south, an empire that spans the entirety of a continent that putting all Anima, Sanus, Solitas, Menagerie, and that other continent that NOBODY has named for whatever reason in all the thousands of years that we've inhabited this world, isn't even a tenth the size of theirs! Valitse myrkky nyt." The girl sneered, before reaching up to puff out the smoke from her cigar.

"Diamond is right, Domino. We could have infiltrators from either enemy, and both have the capability of causing a lot of damage." Gaz spoke up, crossing her arms. "But size doesn't matter in a real fight, Diamond. Skill matters. Us clones got the skill, the numbers, and the equipment to kick those неряхи right back to their homelands, and drive them into hell from there!"

"Hope you're right, Gaz. All reports coming from Specters that have been sent to pull reconnaissance on the empire put together a very bleak image for us right now."

"Sie erwarten, die Königreiche mit heruntergelassenen Hosen zu fangen, but they're not expecting us! Remember, them attacking without warning is all part of the plan!" Domino cheered, though almost immediately got shot down by the Commander.

"You're too optimistic about all this, Domino. If they successfully get infiltrators in, there might be nothing left for the army to save."

"Enough! We should not waste our time bickering like this!" Gaz snapped, pulling both of the other girls' attention. "If we're gonna be screening for диверсанты, we need to do it from shadows."

"Agreed, but between the three of us, that leaves two places without anyone to monitor."

"What about Burner and Boil? I can get them on call, just say the word." Domino stated surely, receiving a nod from Diamond.

"Do it. This should be child's-play for all five of us." She ordered, and shortly after, the two girls images appeared on the screen.

"Quoi de neuf, chiennes?" They all rolled their eyes as Burner, like always, opened with some profanity.

"Verdorie Burner! Wat ze wil zeggen, what do you need of us, sir?" Boil cursed towards her more vulgar counterpart, receiving a small chuckle from Gaz and Domino.

"In three days, I want you to assist us in screening the incoming flow of students that will be arriving for the Vytal Festival for infiltrators. I'll forward you the details on an encrypted channel."

"Bevestigd, mijnheer! We'll assist us however you need!"

"Good. Dismissed." Diamond droned, before cutting the link with the two Hoots Troopers.

Groaning, Gaz looked at her two sisters as they each held a different expression over their faces. Domino was always a sort of happy-go-lucky girl, and her constant gleeful expression while out of combat could get annoying at times, but was also quite refreshing at times as well. Diamond was stern, both in and out of combat, and she was fairly certain she'd never seen the girl smile or even laugh even once. To be perfectly honest, Diamond was kinda a killjoy, too.

"We're not gonna get anything more done tonight, girls. Let's tuck in, tomorrow is Saturday and I don't know about you two, but I'm planning on sleeping in a little." Gaz suggested, receiving two nods in affirmation, with Diamond just as quickly terminating her feed, leaving it to just Domino and Gaz...

"So... Could we go out for a bite tomorrow? Academy's food is getting a little old." The statement made her chuckle a bit, before pulling up to the screen.

"Hah, who's paying?"

"Their tax money. Duh." She stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, cracking Gaz up.

"Haha... Okay, Domino, we can go out to eat tomorrow, but I'm choosing the movie!"

"I never said anything about a movie."

"Yeah, but when do we ever go out and you DON'T wanna see one?"

"..."

"That's what I thought." She laughed, before stretching lightly. "Goodnight, Domino. We'll head out at 1200 tomorrow."

"Goodnight Gazzy!" With that, the feed cut out, leaving Gaz in the dark, a small smirk playing across her face at the small nickname that her little sister had given her.

With a loud yawn, Gaz decided that it would likely be best to just crash on the bed, pass out and wake up eight hours later than she usually did...

And so she did.

* * *

**A/N: Been ready for a few days. Was too lazy to post. Posted now.**


	12. Chapter 12: The End of Something

He was not one to admit fear, after all, to admit fear was weakness. But now, as the cacophony of screams and blaster fire permeated through the air, the word "fear" seemed so insufficient for the terror he felt in that very moment. The fear he felt we he met Cinder for the first time, the dread when he made acquaintances with Salem's favorite butcher, Tyrian, the sense of abject horror when he met said butcher's "Goddess," they were all similar in a sense... but they all paled in comparison to the terror that chilled him down to the bone as he gripped the table, trembling like a leaf in a storm.

Before the mentioned individuals, Adam could at least stand his ground, have some spine... but against this horrific monstrosity, he, and all his followers were all but powerless to do a thing. It wasn't his first brush with this veritable walking combat-blender, but he could almost guarantee it would be his last if it were coming for him this time.

Just barely two years had passed since his first encounter with one of these... things, back in the secret Atlas White Fang encampment, when the thing came to cut off the Atlas Branch's head. His panic and terror only intensified as he remembered that that eventful night was why the White Fang no longer HAD a Atlas Branch... and if the sounds of the carnage didn't lie to him, it was the same one that butchered his kin back an Atlas.

They weren't even canon fodder before Hoots Troopers. Before those nightmarish demons, those monstrous spawns of hell, the daughters of Lucifer himself, they might as well have not even been there to oppose a Hoots Trooper.

Looking back frantically, not even bothering to put his mask on as he turned to face the lieutenant that slapped open the flaps of his command tent while sprinting at him. he wanted to say something, but before he could even say a thing, the man started to sputter in a mix of panic and abject terror.

"C-Commander! It's no ordinary Hoots Trooper! It's Dia-" he sputtered, before immediately coughing up a cloud of blood and falling back, a knife buried in his throat as he fell and a new, terrifying visage revealing itself before him with it's helmet removed. His heart began pound the hardest it ever had since his first encounter back in Atlas. The girl's hair was long, drawn back, spiky and dyed blonde, a color he knew not to be her natural color, held up just above her forehead by a circlet bearing a green heart in the middle. Sweat began to race up his face as his terror heightened to unheard of levels, the flames behind her only adding to her neigh-demonic appearance.

"D-d-d-d-DIAMOND!" Adam screamed as he stumbled back, just barely catching himself on his table. "S-Stay Back! Stay Back you Hellspawn!"

Reaching for his blade, he slashed at the terrifying woman, only for the blade to instantaneously shatter before even striking her, and a massive gout of blood exploded from his hand holding the blade, horrifically deforming his hand as his arm recoiled backwards.

_"Impossible! She didn't even move! She's standing Still!" _Adam mentally screamed as the nerves in his hand flooded his brain with signals of pain. In his horrified state, there wasn't a thing he could do to keep from screaming, his bloodcurdling scream echoing through the air as he fell back and through the table.

He quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled a combat knife from a hidden sheathe and raising it to resist the demon, a final futile attempt to try to stall destiny. Instantaneously, like last time, blood exploded from his hand as his hand and fingers were all but shattered and deformed, and the knife plunged in his gut. He sputtered and coughed blood all over the floor just before the Hoots Trooper, before looking up with a pleading look in his eyes.

Before he could say a word, it felt as though a thousand fists had slugged him at once over every inch of his body as it still seemed Diamond hadn't even moved an inch. As the unseen force struck, Adam was sent reeling through the other side of the tent, leaving him in a pool of his own blood, writhing in pain as Diamond approached his fallen form.

He was riddled with indents from invisible fists in his deformed body, as some shards of broken bone punched through some of the wounds. Weakly he turned his head to look back at the monster, more terrifying than any Grimm or any Hunter, his eyes admitting his defeat to the superior warrior. He was too weak to move, too weak to speak. As he looked down upon his broken form, he made note that if she didn't outright kill him here, he'd still be able to recover with his aura enough to walk away in about a day or so, yet gulped as he knew he likely wouldn't be given the chance.

"I am not here to kill you, Taurus, as much as I wish I was." She sneered, before planting her boot firmly on his chest and slowly applying pressure. "I'm just here to remind you of _why _you fear us. To remind you that no matter where you may run, no matter where you may hide, that you will _Never_ be safe from me, or my sisters."

She turned, lifted her foot off his chest and beginning to walk away, before snapping on her helmet and pausing. "This is not Mercy. I'm but following Orders." Diamond sneered one last time, before immediately disappearing.

As Adam lost consciousness, his breathing finally started to calm, level out as he refocused his aura onto healing his grisly injuries. He was left, however, with one last thing for nightmare fuel, as the demon's sneering laughter echoed through the dark, penetrating his very being and chilling him to the core...

* * *

Several days had passed following Jaune's battle with the Ursa, though that was on none of their minds as they sauntered down the streets towards the docks. Their plan was rather simple, really. They'd go to the docks, scope out the competition, and go home.

A relatively basic plan, though the idle chatter between their blonde and raven-haired teammates had successfully served to annoy them to a notable extent. Ruby herself had just opted to tune them out while paying attention to her map. Vale wasn't a familiar city, not like Atlas, so she really would prefer to not get lost, if it were all the same to her other teammates.

Weiss likewise had tried, but failed, to tune them out like Ruby had, eventually getting roped into the conversation despite her desire to do just the opposite. It was something about her the White Fang, that much she knew. Likewise, she knew that Blake was a Faunas, but she had no idea why exactly she seemed so adamant about defending the actions of terrorists.

"They're just misguided!" Blake said, though that much only made Weiss groan in irritation.

"Being misguided is no excuse for terrorism. Murder, theft, arson, among a list of other crimes can't be justified by simply saying 'we were misguided.' If that were the case, I'm sure Ruby would have shot you during the training sim for breaking formation and disobeying orders, and justified it as being 'misguided.'" Weiss stated monotonously, raising her rapier and checking over the blade for any imperfections that need amending. Blake of course sneered at that, and sent a glare over toward the mentioned girl, who of course either didn't notice or didn't care.

Ruby and Weiss were both in their armor, something that had successfully served to ward off any curious bystanders by sheer intimidation. Though Weiss had only brought _Myrtenaster _for this excursion, Ruby had of course brought all her blasters, including a small prototype she'd been working on.

She wouldn't admit it, but she felt a little embarrassed that she was the only one without a completely unique weapon in the entire academy. She had her twin XA-25s, her XA-22S, her additional tactical equipment, and her armor but none of her equipment was unique like Weiss's _Myrtenaster, _Yang's _Ember Celica, _hell, even Blake's _Gambol Shroud_, even if she didn't particularly like the girl.

To be perfectly honest, she wasn't too terribly fond of Faunas in the first place. It actually wouldn't be a stretch to say she hated them, truth be told. She wouldn't say she knew any faunas beside Blake, but her interaction with them thus far was almost exclusively in the form of shooting at each other when sent to guard an SDC shipment. In that sense all she really had to say about them in combat, or if you were to ask Weiss, more specifically the White Fang, was that they were sloppy, disorganized, reckless, fanatical and foolish.

"Hmm… what's that I smell?" Ruby mused all out of a sudden, finally looking up from her map at the area around them.

"That would be a bakery, Rubes." Weiss answered, patting Ruby on the shoulder. "Wanna stop in?"

"The hell you think? Of course I wanna stop in!" Ruby cheered lightly, before looking back to the map. "Ah, just up ahead, lets go!" She broke out into a jog, with Weiss trailing just behind and the other two just behind her.

They all halted just short of the shop as Ruby had taken a look to her right down the street and took note of a crime scene. Almost instantly, it seemed Ruby had lost her interest in the bakery, and started off towards the scene. Blake specifically took some small notice of that, and watched a bit more closely as they all approached the scene.

There was police tape surrounding a shop's front, the lights darkened out and the window smashed to pieces. Two officers stood in front, though upon hearing their boots against the ground immediately did an about face to greet them. To say they were stunned speechless would be an understatement, as upon noticing the armor she and Weiss were wearing, one dropped his mug of coffee and the other's jaw practically dropped to the floor.

"Holy- Mate, those are Hoots Troopers!" One said excitedly, though the other, looking a bit older, perhaps having been on the job for awhile just straightened up his uniform.

"Officers, report what happened here immediately." Weiss ordered, with the senior taking a step forward and standing at attention.

"Dust robbery, Ma'am. No money taken, just dust. Think it might be the White Fang."

Ruby scratched her chin at that, before looking back towards Weiss. She simply nodded, being all that was needed for their silent conversation, before dipping under the police line.

"I'll investigate the scene. Do not interfere." Ruby ordered to the officers, and dropped her rangefinder down to scan the scene for anything in particular. She quickly noted the sloppy way the burglars had carried themselves, being that upon scanning the ground she found a very clear trail of footprints leading out through the window.

"Hmph, amateur. There's a trail of footsteps leading out and down that alleyway." Ruby pointed out, getting both officers' attention once more. "Get some proper equipment down here immediately and track the criminals. If they're White Fang, I am ordering you as your technical superior, shoot to kill on sight. No quarter."

"But Ma'am-"

"Did I stutter?" She cut him off before he could protest, making the man back down and give her an affirmative salute. Blake however, was practically seething at hearing that, though didn't dare make a move towards the clone, knowing full and well just how dangerous she was. However, that hardly meant she wouldn't give her a piece of her mind.

"How can you be so callous? The White Fang are people too, you know!" She questioned, though only got a laugh out of Ruby.

"I'm sorry, have we met? Ruby Rose, trained Hoots Trooper and professional assassin by extent, a pleasure to meet you, kitty cat!" Ruby mocked, before pushing past the cat, though stopped for a moment to look around a bit more, finally settling her gaze on her sister. "I'm not interested in baked goods now, perhaps later... lets get to the docks."

Almost on que, they heard some ruckus going on from said docks, and rushed over to be greeted with a rather peculiar scene. There was a faunas, unmistakably a monkey faunas, using his tail to keep himself held up-side down on a lamppost. As if to further the stereotype of his sub-species, he was even munching on a banana. Pointing over at him, Ruby yelled at him, successfully catching his attention, though upon noticing her armor they could easily see the boy's complexion turn several shades paler.

"Hey look, team! A degenerate in the flesh!" Her remarks elicited a few dark chuckles from Weiss, a sigh from Yang, and another glare from Blake.

He gulped loudly, before throwing himself up on the post. "Oh God, Hoots Troopers?!. No one said anything about there being Hoots Troopers in Vale, I'm outta here!" He muttered, before taking off into a sprint as he landed on the wooden planks of the dock.

"Well, Weiss, Ruby, you wanted to scope out the competition, and there he goes." Yang commented sarcastically, with the two mentioned girls breaking out into a sprint to catch up. Ruby herself was more rapidly closing the distance with him, though even after being beside the girl most her life, her speed still managed to baffle Weiss in the most absolute, something her semblance only amplified, at least when in combat. As for Yang and Blake, Ruby's speed was completely inhuman, and so were so many other physical feats she'd shown to be capable of, so much so that it actually terrified the latter girl.

He looked back to see Ruby closing the distance faster than he could even think, terrifying him to the core as she inched closer and closer. With a loud gulp, he threw himself around a corner, deftly spinning around some oblivious ginger as he came around, and continued to run.

Though as for Ruby, that oblivious ginger was all that was needed to halt her advance, as immediately upon recognizing her she knew if they collided, neither of them would be standing afterwards. She just barely managed to stop herself before she would've taken them both to the ground, though a quick glance past her revealed to them all the Faunas they were so chasing escaping through scaling one of the buildings and vanishing out of sight across the rooftops.

"Argh, damnation! Penny, I didn't know you were in Vale?" She stated, rolling her shoulders a few times and cracking her neck.

"Well I'll be damned. Penny, what are you doing here?" She looked back to see it was Weiss, nodding in agreement with the statement.

"Uhh... you know her?" Yang inquired, with the pair of sisters not taking the time to answer how.

"Ruby, Weiss! It's SO Good to see you two here!" The girl, so named Penny, answered. "I'm competing in the tournament!"

"YOU'RE competing? That's certainly unexpected... so is your presence here at all, come to think of it. You know anything about that monkey-tailed degenerate that got just escaped us?" Ruby voiced, gaining an incredulous look from the girl.

"They were running from YOU? They must have had a heck of a head-start! What did they do?"

"Nothing worth noting, certainly nothing I'd skin his worthless hide for, but we do suspect that he'll be in the tournament. We were trying to scout out the competition, and that rapscallion appeared on our radar, he took off running as soon as he spotted our armor, though."

"Why do you keep calling him that?!." Blake finally snapped, seizing everyone's attention, and though she knew Ruby was glaring at her, she didn't dare back down, not this time. "Stop calling him a degenerate, or a rapscallion! He's a person!"

"Awww, did I hurt your precious little feelings by calling him what he is?" Ruby mocked in return, stepping forward slightly and making equally mocking gestures with her hands. "Should I cease calling the lampposts and trash cans by their names too?"

"Stop it!"

"I just love your double-standards, I ever told you that, Blake? HE broke the law, give him some time, if he's NOT in the tournament, he'll probably sign on with the Fang, given he's not already initiated."

Blake growled and they could all see a vein start to bulge on her forehead. "Ugh, you ignorant little brat!"

"Believe me, Kitty, I could think of much worse things to call you by. Though I am curious, my responses to your statements are making you look like your blood vessels are about to burst. Why are you so upset by my views towards the White Fang and the Faunas that follow it?"

"YOU are a judgmental little girl!" Blake stated, with Weiss and Yang in the background just looking mildly uncomfortable.

"Immediately reverting to insults on me, eh Belladonna? Not that I expected much more from you, or your kind in general, but do please go on! Maybe you've finally figured out how to make a half-decent point?" Ruby mocked once more, eliciting even intenser growling from Blake. "Hm hm. Best check yourself, Belladonna. Don't wanna go make your kind look even more like animals in front of so many people, now, do we?"

"The fact alone that you sort that faunas boy with the terrorist group based completely on his species makes you just as much if not more a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"

"Well, I see we're at least on the same page then about them being terrorists!" Ruby laughed, making Blake stutter slightly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

* * *

Blake had been continuing to argue against Ruby as they'd all returned from the city to their dorms, though the argument from any outside perspective looked rather one-sided. Certainly Blake was getting furious with Ruby, though much the opposite could be said about the offender. Ruby in fact could even have been said to be having fun with the heated conversation, much to the further frustration of the belligerent faunas.

"Y'know, I really don't see why this is so much of a problem." Ruby said idly while playing with a butterfly knife she'd picked up in town.

"That 'is' the problem!" Blake yelled right back, making Ruby groan.

"Alright, first and foremost, keep your damned voice down, Belladonna. There's people trying to sleep in adjacent rooms right now, and if we all get in trouble for keeping them up, I'll have your head. And secondly, all craps and giggles aside, you realize you're defending an organization that hates and wants to eradicate humanity, don't you? I mean hell, I can sympathize sometimes to be perfectly honest... But the faunas of the White Fang are... well, given opposing viewpoints, I wouldn't say 'pure evil', and considering some rather specific information... that is classified, just so you know. The White Fang are pure evil, based on the context, and most certainly so from my viewpoint." She rebuked, though this only made Blake angrier.

"There's no such thing as 'pure evil!' Why do you think they hate humanity so much?!. It's because of people like Cardin, like YOU, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

"Oh? People like me you say? Do continue."

"You're discriminatory!"

"Oooooh, so THAT'S your point behind all this? Well, could have said that outright, would've saved us both several hours worth of breath. But, y'see, like anyone's hate of anyone or anything, my hatred isn't unfounded." Ruby began, straightening out her knife and throwing it into the dresser, the blade sticking in upright. "I've reason enough to believe that the murder of my mom was in fact done by one of your degenerate kind. Her death would've had me executed at Astra City if not for the Schnee family, who have by extension become my family. To top it all off, the White Fang are in open war with the family I've been adopted into, the family I've come to care deeply for. I've had close friends disappear and seen board members executed just because they knew us."

Ruby then slid off her bed, closing the distance with Blake, who'd thus far been struck silent with a small look of guilt crossing her face. "And then on top off all that, there's you... a faunas who hated me for existing from the very first moment we met. Heh. Fitting, since I can't say the feeling wasn't mutual from the start for everything your kind has forced me to be put through. Because of your kind, I was nearly executed, my mother, the most important person in my entire life, was murdered in cold blood. Because of your kind, I knew shame with her death, and I felt guilt for every death I couldn't stop at your kinds' hands."

"So yes. Yes I am discriminatory, and nothing will change my mind about how degenerates like you should burn on a cross! Your kind and your precious so-called 'White Fang' are nothing but cowards, liars, thieves, and murderers!" Ruby snapped towards Blake, who, having finally had enough, stood back up as quickly as she could to meet Ruby at eye-level.

"Well Maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" She roared, though immediately realizing her mistake, ducked low to avoid a punch and immediately sprinted out of the room, a dozen knives not even missing by a hair as she ran down the corridor...

* * *

After what must've been ten minutes of sprinting harder than she ever had in her life, Blake looked back to see the hallways behind her were occupied by... nothing? She could've sworn that Ruby or Weiss or any of the Hoots Troopers would be after her... then again, if it were Diamond, she'd already be dead.

After tentatively gazing around for a few minutes, she finally sighed and tried to relax her breathing... before eventually breaking down and sobbing.

How could anyone be so cruel? And Ruby... of all people, she expected Weiss to be the one with such viewpoints, but Ruby? She didn't even share blood with them... but likewise, she supposed that to a clone, that much was probably the least relevant thing, and she knew that family wasn't restricted to those who share your blood.

For once, though, Blake tried to put herself in Ruby's shoes, tried to think about what SHE must've been through to survive to this point, what things she must've seen and done to become so... Ruby, she really didn't have any other words that could use to accurately describe her. In that moment, she finally looked up with a slight twinge of sympathy for the red-haired butcher. After all, almost all wrongs done to her both wrong and new have been from Faunas, something like that must've warped her perception on the Faunas.

That must be it! She must hate Faunas because her only experiences with them were so negative! And honestly, with just how severe those grievances were, could she truly blame Ruby for how she thought? Ultimately, Ruby's hatred of her kind was just a byproduct of the White Fang's more violent actions, which was as much as she may have hated to admit, completely understandable.

She sighed, and slumped back, shutting her eyes hard and finally actually leveling out her breathing. It was also in that moment that she was acutely aware one of the Hoots Troopers were standing just behind her, with arms crossed as she glared down on her...

"I assume you know everything, then?" Blake asked, the realization of the possible finality of her life dawning on her. The Hoots Trooper didn't say a word, merely nodding as she continued to glare. Blake sighed, then cast her gaze to the floor weakly. "I suppose this is the end then, isn't it?" Once again, she was met by silence. "Well... make it quick I guess... I'm too tired to continue running, and fighting one of you would be pointless."

"No." The Hoots Trooper finally said, stepping around her. Blake's shock made itself evident in an instant, as she whipped her head back up, and looked on at the trooper as she passed. It was Domino, and she didn't spare Blake another glance as she passed wordlessly.

"N-no? Y-you mean... you're not going to... kill me?"

"And what point would that serve? Killing you for a mistake you're already working to make amends for? Get up, dust yourself off, and keep fighting!" Domino ordered, before kicking Blake in the forehead and knocking her down. "Now that you've been woken up out of your stupor, there's someone waiting by the statue in the front of the school for you. I'm sure with his help, you'll find a way to make amends with your leader before it's too late." She droned, before continuing down the hallway, totally silent.

For a moment, Blake just stared after her wordlessly, before sighing a last time, rising to her feet, and following the Trooper's orders. With a new, grim determination now set upon her she sprinted down to the courtyard, finally met with a familiar face once again...

* * *

Ruby reluctantly gave a small apology to JNPR for impaling their door with several knives, and immediately shut and locked the door. Of friggin course there was a White Fang degenerate on their team, and of course the details of such were JUST NOW being forwarded to her by Ozpin. It honestly infuriated her just how often he seemed so keen on keeping other people in the dark on information like that.

She didn't care if she was ex White Fang or not, she was one of them at one point, and unless she proved herself worthy of redemption soon, Ruby swore that she'd see justice done herself, with her own two blasters.

"No Matter," she growled whilst clenching her bare fist so hard as to draw blood, "come what may, tomorrows actions will either save or damn her worthless life!"

* * *

**A/N: For anyone that's wondering, each named clone excluding Ruby generally speaks a different language, current list follows:**

**Diamond - Finnish  
Gaz - Russian  
Domino - German  
Burner - French  
Boil - Dutch**


	13. Chapter 13: The End of Something p2

She was trying her damned hardest to keep a low profile with this boy, as they sat atop the same terrace quietly drinking coffee. To be blunt, she was still confused as to why the Hoots Trooper had spared her, still confused as to why Ruby hadn't pursued her outside of shooting at her as she left the room…

Ruby…

That girl was still such an anomaly to her, which was strange. The other Hoots Troopers she'd built a sort of rough psyche profile on within a few days of being among them, but Ruby continued to surprise her.

Diamond was practically just a machine. She really didn't have much personality to her outside of being blunt and serious all day every day, being terrifying and having more than enough bite to back her terrifying presence up. Domino she could actually say she found a kinda pleasant person, truth be told. Exempting the kick to the face the other night, she was empathetic, supportive, hell, she'd even happily joked with and helped her on homework a few times, and when it came time to do the job she could get serious, but still seemed human. And then there was Gaz, who just seemed to fall somewhere in between.

But the clone was different. One second she could be completely dead serious and an absolute killjoy, the next she could be a terrifying little ball of happy, murderous energy. Not to mention how whenever sweets or bakeries were involved, her personality would just go wack. Hyper-happy coming to sweets and fresh baked goods, a neigh emotionless monster in combat, a strict and harsh instructor when training, and when at rest she seemed to be some sort of weird mixture of all of those qualities at once. On top of all that, she was utterly unpredictable in her actions.

Thinking of the girl honestly made her brain hurt, but she supposed it really couldn't be helped… and perhaps Yang was right. She honestly hadn't been fair towards the clo… Ruby, and given how much she'd revealed, the fact that she hadn't just outright lashed out on faunas specifically whenever she saw one bamboozled her. She supposed there really was two sides to each argument in this case. By all rights, her distrust and hatred of faunas wasn't unwarranted, given that they'd given themselves that bad rep by wronging her so many times.

She sighed, and ran a hand through her hair before looking up at the boy holding his cup up with his tail. He was giving her a look of some concern, which she found kind, but unnecessary… well…

"So… what's the story with you and those Hoots Troopers?" He asked, setting his cup down. Blake chuckled and took a sip of her own coffee.

"That's… a difficult situation. She's my team leader, and we had a slight falling out last night, not that we were ever really on good terms, but things just kind of… came to a head last night." She said delicately, avoiding mentioning that Ruby was a clone. "She distrusts, and even hates, Faunas like you or I, but as much as I hate to admit it, her hatred isn't unfounded. I slipped up, mentioned that I used to be part of the White Fang, and she tried to remove my head from my shoulders… as much as she is my team leader, she's still a Hoots Trooper, and you, Sun, I doubt you're unaware of them, given your reaction to seeing her."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure every faunas on the planet knows what a Hoots Trooper is. Heard stories from other guys who said they heard it from guys that either were in the Fang or still are, and they're… well, they're terrifying stories." Sun said, a chill creeping down his spine as he continued. "But you said you'd fought Hoots troopers before, when you were talking about the White Fang, so I take it you know what they're capable of first-hand… tell me, is it just exaggeration, or are they really all they're chalked up to be?"

Blake chuckled darkly, before sipping from her mug again and reclining slightly. "If anything, the stories don't do them justice. Gaz, the one with white armor and red markings, killed almost everyone attacking a Schnee train single-handedly. Twenty of the White Fang's greatest warriors, ex-hunters, all dropped like flies. We weren't even able to touch her, and by the time we'd exerted ourselves so hard that just breathing became a difficult task, she was totally unfazed." Blake described, then thought to another event. "Then there's Diamond, who's semblance might just make her the deadliest being on Remnant."

This made Sun nearly choke on his coffee, before recollecting himself and leaning closer. "Really? Well, what is it? If it's so powerful, it must have some sort of drawback, right?"

"That's the thing, we really don't know. When she erased the Atlas Branch, apparently her attacks seemed to have no time pass between them. You look one second and everyone around you is alive, and she's in front of you, blink once they all had knives buried in their throat and she'd impaled you through a flagpole twenty feet away, and is already walking away." She explained then tapped her fingers together. "At least that's what the few survivors reported, and panicked reports have to be taken with a grain of salt. I hadn't seen the fighting done myself, but I'd seen the fruits of her labor… unfortunately, none of the survivors who wrote those reports are still alive today. To our knowledge, she essentially pulled a reverse card on the survivors shortly after."

"Crap… and which one is this again?" He inquired.

"Diamond, the Hoots Trooper Commander. She's the one with yellow markings and white armor." She paused for a few minutes, before pushing her now-empty mug aside and leaning closer in. "But there is one Hoots Trooper I've met, it wasn't Weiss or Ruby, but rather the one assigned to Beacon's Freshman year."

She beamed at the thought of her. "Domino is her name! She's what I dub in my head, 'The Good Hoots Trooper.' She cares deeply for her charges, and has often joked with me and even helped me with schoolwork and improving combat form. She's taught me how to use the equipment of a Hoots Trooper and since training with her, my combat effectiveness rating is higher than I ever hoped it could be."

"Wow, really? Hard to believe, but if she's gotten you that good…"

"She has. I used to be 2.3 star rating, and since taking up under her, I've increased to 4.1."

"4.1 Out of a perfect 5?!. That means you're scoring high enough to qualify for Elite Status!" Sun exclaimed, getting a slightly confused look out of Blake. "Oh, right, you've probably not heard of that, heh… Alright, I'll explain: There's two types of Hunter Status, Regular, and Elite. Anything at or below below a 3.75 is automatically regular and get all standard huntsman benefits, but Elite Status Hunters get more dangerous, and profitable, contract offers and bounties, and are more internationally recognized. On top of all that, you'll have more authority and priority resource-wise within the Kingdoms, so you will always have access to much better equipment for each mission."

"Geez!" Blake exclaimed, her eyes widening like saucers as she took all that in. "How can you tell if you're Elite Status?"

"Well, you have to have a combat effectiveness rating high enough, and have to be singled out by someone of high importance, like the headmaster or their vice headmaster. Once that's happened, instead of there being just the oval that your picture is in on your ID, there'll be gold or silver laurels on each side, and a banner across the bottom with the word 'ELITE' in it. After that, they're further identified by their Elite Ranking, which is shown in stars surrounding the portrait and around the laurels. As an example, a three star Elite Hunter would have three stars underneath their portrait, but a nine star might have three on each side except the top."

"Oh… What's the difference between gold and silver colors?"

"Gold is for certified Veteran Huntsmen. All others get Silver." He explained quickly, eliciting a small 'aah' from Blake.

"If that's the case, then Ruby has Elite Status… which doesn't surprise me at all." She droned, reclining back in her chair. She gave a loud, exasperated sigh before pulling up Ruby's profile on her scroll and counting the stars. "Yep… and why am I not surprised by how many stars she has…"

"She has more than one? What's her combat effectiveness rating?"

"Her rating is a perfect 5 out of 5, and she has 20 stars." It was at that time that Sun couldn't control himself and actually spit out his coffee, fortunately away from her.

"T-T-TWENTY!?. That's just five stars off from having the highest possible ranking!"

"Huh. Well, considering just how good she is and how much the Headmaster and Vice Headmaster seem to play favorites with her, it honestly doesn't surprise me. I know Domino, Gaz and Diamond outright do have 25 stars, and it's all in gold." Sun gulped as a pit of dread formed in his gut. Sure, he knew Hoots Troopers were monsters, especially so given a first-hand survivor's account, but their ranking implied that they were practically gods of war on a battlefield.

Sighing, Blake decided it best to switch the subject now. "In any case, I now have two things I must do. First being to see if I can't prove that the White Fang AREN'T behind all these robberies."

"You think it's not them?"

"I know the White Fang have done some bad things, but what could they possibly need with that much dust? What could anyone save an army?" Blake questioned, her face hardening as she put more thought into it. "And second being to see if I can't make amends somehow with Ruby… Don't get me wrong, she and I are by no means friends, and I don't think we ever will be, but it doesn't take a genius to see that getting and staying on a Hoots Trooper's bad side is a really bad idea. If I can at least put us at neutral terms, perhaps some of this damage can be undone..."

Little did the two faunas know, just a short distance away, one of the very Hoots Troopers that had been mentioned kept her eyes glued to her targets, quietly stalking them in hopes of finding out some more intel.

"_Commander, this is Vice Headmistress Goodwitch. Do you have anything to report_?"

She grunted, before raising a hand to touch the Comms bead on the side of her helmet. "Hardly. They were just discussing elite status and are now theorizing about the thieves' next move."

"_I see_." Came the barebones response from the Vice Headmistress. "_Have you learned anything about these thieves?_"

"Yes, we uncovered the fine details of their plans roughly three weeks ago, and can confirm that their next move is the SDC shipment due tonight. These two you're having me shadow seem to have the same idea." Looking back towards the two, who were finally rising from their seats, she noticed them begin to turn their gaze in her direction.

"Hmmm…" Sun began, "does it ever feel like you're being… watched?"

"Yeah… it does…" Blake replied, before casting her gaze to the side.

For a split second, she could've sworn she'd caught something out of the corner of her eye on the rooftop, though as soon as she'd seen it, it was gone. She didn't even have enough time to distinguish any details, though after just rubbing her eyes she sighed. She's gone the past few days without any sleep, so maybe she was just tired.

* * *

She counted down the seconds as she lie in wait to see if either had a response as to her presence, nodding as after five seconds there wasn't any sort of reaction to her presence... then fell to her knees, gasping for air, hacking and sputtering. While her semblance was easily a trump card in combat, she had to be in the right state of mind to use it, or else she knew she'd end up hurting herself, perhaps even fatally. After a few seconds spent recovering, she picked herself back up, and peeked around the corner of her dumpster in the alleyway, watching as the two left the rooftops and made way for the docks, and swiftly made after them, keeping to the shadows as to hide herself from prying eyes...

* * *

Ruby wasn't about to question how exactly Diamond found Blake so much sooner than they had, but that didn't matter anyways. Now it simply fell down to getting into position with the rest of her team and Penny, and waiting to spring the trap. They were already at the docks, already aware of what the thieves' plans were, and already aware that they were more than less likely White Fang Terrorists.

The plan was pretty simple, really. Either it was the White Fang, and they'd wait for Blake to show her true colors and act dependant on what's revealed, or it wouldn't be the White Fang, and they'd arrest her for interrogation following the slaughter.

Sure enough, after a few hours, they spotted the duo atop a rooftop south of their position. They knew well enough that their cover was good, that Blake and the monkey wouldn't notice until they revealed themselves.

"Hey… Ruby?" Came Yang's voice, a hushed whisper as she army crawled up beside her. "You don't think she's actually with the Fang right now, do you? Given her actions right now, it looks more like she's lying in wait as much as we are rather than doing recon."

"We don't know for certain what her current motives are, however, from the report obtained from Specters, we do know that she is Ex-White Fang. That being said, that doesn't rule out the possibility of her still doing some work for them." She said monotonously, handing her binoculars to her older… sister. "Observe their positions. They're prone, with a clear line of sight, good cover, and will have the high ground if White Fang do show up. I think I've actually gotten through to her in regards to tactical decision-making, her position, if exposed to an aerial attack, is a very advantageous one for fighting them, or doing effective reconnaissance."

"No kidding. I see she's also got an XA-22A on her, so it's definitely not like she's lacking a more viable ranged option to take advantage of her position. I'd hate to be in that killzone, especially if you put a few more guns up there."

"Agreed, she's got a defensible position, no doubt… but knowing her, she might leave her position to confront them directly, forgoing her advantage. If she's still with us, I'm gonna have to beat that out of her." Ruby groaned, before gesturing for Weiss to move up.

She crawled up beside her on her opposite side, bringing up her own XA-22A and leveling it downrange. "We've established a good crowsnest here. If there is a fight, we won't need to leave this position to fight." Weiss said, rolling her shoulder before looking over at Yang.

"Hey Weiss, what are your thoughts on all of this?" Yang asked, getting an indifferent shrug out of the girl.

"If she's with us, we welcome her back into the fold after some interrogation, if she's not, this will be her final battle. Simple as that." Weiss droned, before tossing a spare plasma canister over to Yang, who easily caught it. "How are you doing on your accuracy?"

"Ruby's been dragging me out to the firing range a lot these past few months, not that I mind that much, it's actually kinda fun… sorry, getting sidetracked. I currently score a 4.4 out of 5 on the chart." She answered, bringing up her own blaster, a sort of modified XA-22A, painted to match her general color scheme.

Ruby looked over at her and looked her up and down a few times, actually noticing some change in the girl's apparel. For starters, it looked as though she'd integrated and repainted several bits of clone armor, and refitted them to fit her form. It was gauntlets, greaves, a combat belt and shoulder pads, and she also noted a refitted version of the clone scout variant of body armor was being sported by her, with a one-sided pauldron over her right shoulder, and a sort of scarf around her neck. On top of all that, she was wearing a headset with a blue eyepiece over her right eye, and a mic. Aside from those additions, the rest of her outfit remained the same.

"That's a good look for you, Yang. Looks more professional." She complimented lightly, sending her a silent nod of approval.

While she may have not realized it herself, that small gesture was just enough to make Yang beam a bright smile, and make her more confident in what they were doing. With a content sigh, she trained sights downrange, and waited with a confident smirk on her face…

* * *

Blake had only needed a moment to observe the docks to find the most advantageous position, Ruby's intense training and harsh lessons shining through. Dislike her as she may, she knew that Ruby was no slouch in tactical acumen. The rooftop she awaited held all the necessary advantages for a good sniper to have a field day. The clear line of sight and absence of notable cover over a wide area would make picking off any would-be fighters a piece of cake, the cover made them both safer from incoming return fire and harder to spot, and the higher elevation would both make her harder to hit, and the enemy easier to hit. It would also allow them to easier identify the thieves, something that she couldn't do this without knowing.

"Hey, I stole you some food!" The voice from Sun came, getting a groan out of her as she rose up slightly out of her prone position.

"Do you always steal things?" She asked, not diverting her attention from downrange.

"Eh. Forgot my wallet in my room." He replied, before taking a prone position next to her. She chuckled lightly, before her ears perked up with the arrival of a few bullheads sweeping over the area.

"Get down before they spot you!" She growled, grabbing Sun by the arm and yanking him down. She kept her eyes trained down her sights as the Bullheads began to land, deploying several figures, each clad in tunics with symbol of the White Fang of their backs, and the masks of Grimm on their faces…

"It's them… You really didn't wanna believe it was them, did you?" He inquired, but Blake just stayed silent. Deep down she knew it was them, she just didn't WANT to believe it.

Sighing, she put her finger on the trigger and leveled her aim with the head of a lieutenant, before exhaling slowly and calmly. She was about to pull the trigger, but halted when another Bullhead dropped in, deploying several dozen more White Fang and a human among them…

"Wait, is that… Torchwick? Why would the White Fang work with Torchwick?" She paused for a moment, before raising a hand, not to high, to signal for Sun to halt. "The White Fang would never ally with a human, much less one like Torchwick… there's more to this we're not seeing. Sun, cover me, I'm hacking into the bullhead's camera feed."

He took the gun and trained his eyes downrange, not firing unless one were to spot him, while Blake rolled onto her back and pulled out a laptop, carefully masking her signature so as to not be detected, and establishing a connection with the camera, getting visual and audio.

"_No, no, that's not the right cable you idiot! It's a combined steel cable I need, not a single layer! Honestly, you idiots can't expect to steal all this dust for the benefit of your cause if you can't even use the right lifting equipment! I'm not here as your friend, I'm here because this is a joint business venture, You're benefiting because I'm benefiting!"_ Came the voice over the laptop.

'_Well, that explains things._' Blake thought, shutting down her laptop and stowing it back in her bag, before taking back the gun from Sun. "Alright, Torchwick may be at the head of this op, but I don't think he's the leader at large…" She mused aloud, before looking back into her bag and fishing out a large dart.

"Uhhh… what are you gonna do with that?" Sun asked, just as she was affixing it just below the barrel.

"Shoot him with the dart, track his location. He'll take the dart out, but it'll be in long enough to inject a nanobot that can track him. We'll use him to lead us to others… I've mixed some poison in with it, so he'll think we'll have poisoned him, and take an antidote. He won't expect to be being tracked, though." She explained. Though was cut off from some laughter over her earpiece…

"_I see you are with us, then. Welcome back to the fold_." The voice came, and she instantly recognized it was Ruby. Looking left and right, she couldn't pick out where exactly the girl was, not that that surprised her. She was the better one when it came to finding a position with all the advantages and additional benefits that someone with a normal mind wouldn't be able to pick out.

"Ruby… where are you?"

"_That isn't relevant, however, I see that you've been listening to my lessons more intently than I'd originally thought. Good position, but you've left yourself open to a potential aerial assault, and I don't see any aerial denial weapons on your person or with you at all for that matter. Tsk tsk._" Oh. Of course. She'd honestly forgotten about that angle, and considering the presence of the bullheads, it was a major oversight.

"Oh… Crap."

"_We've got aerial denial equipment on us, so we can deal with that. However, once this is all said and done, we're taking you in for interrogation. There will be no arguments on this._" She said in finality. Blake gulped as a bit of dread formed itself in her gut, but pushed it aside as she refocused on what she was here for.

Training her eyes down sight and her sights on her target, Blake gave a few seconds to calculate for distance, wind speed, elevation, and the angle of fire, before firing off the dart. Torchwick gasped as the dart stuck into his leg, biting deep and injecting the poison and the nanobot into his system just before he could pull it out and heal with his aura.

Nodding in satisfaction, she retrained her sights on one of the White Fang terrorists, and fired. The bolt struck the boy in the chest, bringing him down to earth in a second, the bolt of plasma burning a hole straight through his heart.

Then, in answer to her first strike, the sound of three more blasters echoed out from the rest of her team's now disclosed position, each bolt claiming another life. Blake smiled, even if the White Fang here wouldn't all survive, she realized that this was war now. When she took that first shot into Torchwick's leg, that was the declaration of war. The return fire was controllable, thanks to the cover on both attacking parties' ends, but for the White Fang thieves below, they learned just what kind of a huge mistake they'd made in the ground they'd chosen.

Sun was shocked to see Blake opening fire without restraint, but then redirected his gaze towards where the rest of the blaster fire was coming from. He slapped his forehead in the realization of the fact that Blake's leader was a Hoots Trooper, so of course she'd be trained to be merciless in combat…

* * *

Up in their position, the three girls mercilessly layed down sniper fire on the many Faunas that had so foolishly left themselves exposed. Every second there was at least one or two flashes from the guns they leveled down over their prey, each flash accompanied by a body dropping to the floor or a burn mark left on the concrete floor they stood upon.

Roman and the Lieutenant had tried to stand their ground for a few seconds, but ultimately turned tail back into their bullhead and retreated after all their attempts at retaliation were in vain. More and more of their forces died with each passing second, and now stood the only sensible decision to flee. Besides, whatever that dart had pumped into him, he was sure it would be fatal if he didn't get an antidote into his system soon.

Listening as she heard him call in reinforcements, Ruby chuckled darkly under her breath. Really, it was child's play hacking into his equipment, so nothing he said and did with that scroll of his would escape her attention. She waited for a few seconds, still firing down on the few Fangs that remained on the ground when she heard the telltale noises of approaching bullheads.

'_Bullheads, sounds like V.14 twin engines. Given engine usage, likely armament is a 20mm Winchester Arms Auto Cannon. Primitive in comparison to a blaster cannon, but it carries more than enough stopping power to tear us to ribbons, not that it'll get the chance. Now would be the part where Penny comes into play._' Ruby thought on a dime, before raising her hand and snapping loudly, giving the signal for Penny to begin her work.

And within but a moment, a barrage of rockets roared out from behind Blake, much to the girl's surprise. The sudden noise nearly made the poor girl jump out of her skin, but that being irrelevant, the rockets flew true, each one slamming head-on with a Bullhead and blasting it to smithereens. The burning husks fell, crashing into the water with a terrible roar, before letting the area fall into silence…

* * *

About an hour passed, with the police eventually arriving at the scene for clean up (much to their chagrin). The Police Chief attempted to apprehend Blake and Sun, as they were the only ones not clearly with the Hoots Troopers, but Ruby's intervention placed Blake under her own charge, and clarified that Sun hadn't had any part in the fighting.

For whatever reason, he seemed to not take the que and leave. In fact, he seemed rather adamant about staying beside Blake for whatever reason, not that she cared. She knew well enough he wasn't brave enough to stand up for her if she confronted her teammate directly, though supposed that given the outcome of the night, she hadn't much reason to be too upset.

Approaching her raven-haired teammate, the girl she could see was sweating bullets as she approached, and her complexion had paled several shades. She decided about two meters was an agreeable distance, giving the girl enough space to breathe as she crossed her arms and stared down at her…

"I'm disappointed, Blake." She began, chuckling as she heard the girl gulp. "After all, your accuracy rating is a 4.8, and Yang was shooting better than you."

She gave a dumbfounded look, before shaking her head and standing upright to meet her leader at eye-level. "I-I'm sorry, what? You're not..?"

"Upset? No, no I'm not." Ruby said smugly, taking off her helmet and tucking it under her side. "Did you handle the situation in an amateur way? Yes. Was there better ways you could've led us to this same outcome? Definitely. Was there better ways I could've handled our little argument a few nights ago? Well, now you see why I'm not very social." She chuckled at the end, before reaching into her pocket and fishing out four small cigars. She easily tossed one to both Yang and Weiss, before putting one in her own mouth and handing Blake the last.

"Uhh… what's this for?" Blake inquired, getting a nod from Yang in agreement.

"Simply a tradition among Hoots Troopers. You may not be Hoots Troopers, and while the execution of this whole affair could've been much better, I can't argue with the results. Miss Goodwitch has already notified me of the nanobot tracking him's ping, and he'll lead us to the rest of our prey. Good thinking on your end, you've delivered us a notable advantage… now, remember, don't inhale the smoke." Ruby said easily, tossing the girl a lighter after lighting her own. "It's tradition to smoke one after a well-earned victory. You're still coming back with us for interrogation by the Headmaster, but aside from that, I'd say this was well earned."

"But… You're not angry with me? I was in the White Fang, and-"

"Tell me this, Belladonna." She cut her off. "Are you in the White Fang?"

"N-no, I left several-"

"Then it's simple as that. Oh, but don't get me wrong, I still hate your kind. Oh no, that hatred will never fade, but as long as you're willing to overlook my status as a Hoots Trooper and a Clone, then I'm just as willing to overlook your heritage and past for the sake of getting along and working as a team. Deal?" Ruby said, puffing out some smoke, before placing the cigar back in place and extending her hand.

Blake was shook for a moment, looking back and forth from the girl's hands and back to her eyes and back again, before collecting herself, and extending her hand to meet Ruby's, taking it in a firm shake…

Aaaaand immediately regret it, as she immediately felt like the girl was grounding her bones to dust. "But let me make something clear…" She said in a low voice, "you will never, ever show such insubordination as you've recently shown again. You got that?"

She nodded furiously, and the girl immediately loosened her grip, putting it back into a normal shake, before making an about face and puffing out a cloud of smoke again, taking in the sight of Yang tentatively trying her own and Weiss leaning against a crate and casually blowing out rings of smoke up into the air.

"Alright team, pack it up, I'm calling in a gunship to pick us up. We're heading home." Ruby said, smiling with satisfaction as the entirety of her team snapped to attention, Blake's salute signaling the completion of this phase of Team RWBY...

* * *

**A/N: Made a thing to categorize hunters in this story. Will be making a thing for that eventually for expansion upon the lore. idk, probably a google site or something...**


	14. Chapter 14: ODAC

Three clones stood around the holographic table, each eyeing a different part of the map displayed to them. They were dead silent for a few seconds as they identified various objectives, memorized the terrain, made note of points of interest, and studied what they could of their primary objective. They all knew the situation in the city below was a dire one, that it would likely end with an early loss in their war against the empire.

But that didn't matter for them, they had their orders, and that was to follow their sergeant's orders, and that she was taking orders from someone high up in the Atlesian Military. Mission top secret, destination unknown, that nice jazz. All they knew was that the city was under siege, and their objective would have them doing… something. If all went according to plan, they'd be in and out before anyone was any the wiser, though if history were to repeat itself as it had done so many times since time immemorial, the more carefully they planned the op, the more would go wrong. It was practically a suicide mission.

But missions like this were exactly what they specialized in. Orbital Drop Assault Commandos, or, ODACs they were called. Another elite division of clone troopers meant to work in smaller groups for highly sensitive missions. They were similar to Specters in that regard, but were better suited for frontline assault should the need arise, and deployed via orbital drop. In a sense, they were the range between HOOTS Troopers and Specters, making for an all round more versatile special ops soldier.

Their visor was more open than the rest of the army's. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say it bore almost no resemblance to normal clone armor whatsoever. Astra City design was almost completely absent in the armor, and it went for more muted tones of dark greys over the stark white armor designed by the city. Part of the reason might've been that it wasn't designed by Astra City at all, rather by Atlas proper.

It still retained the normal clone body-glove, but the fingers on the gloves only extended halfway. Outside of that, it featured a full body armor with additional plating along the abdomen, gauntlets, three-piece interlocking shoulderpads, tassets guarding their hips, cuisses guarding the outside of their thighs, sabatons that guarded the front and back of their ankles with a sort of W-shaped kneepad on the top, with a few light plates on top of their combat boots. Their helmet had a more conventionally shaped visor that used reinforced ballistic glass and gave them a full field of view. The helmet provided night vision and a HUD to the user, and featured advanced communications, GPS and optical technology, and on top of all else allowed them to view infrared light, further optimizing their usefulness in any situation. The visor could be darkened on the exterior to conceal the user's face, and standard attachments that could be utilized on regular clone helmets could still be used on theirs as well.

To top off their equipment, they had an armored backpack that allowed them to... do what any military backpack would, just theirs was armored, so that made it special, and a whole suite of weapons specifically for them.

The first weapon at their disposal was the XA-25S. A specialized plasma submachine gun that was suppressed to be almost totally silent, with plasma bolts fast and discreet enough to be nearly impossible to see from an untrained eye at the cost of being somewhat weak per-shot. Still, the weapon had an incredibly fast firing rate and large, yet very light, gas cartridges, and featured several favorable features such as an infrared laser and blue-dot sight, collapsible stock, compact design, and a foldable vertical foregrip.

The second weapon was the XA-22M. This blaster pistol was similar to the XA-25S in the sense that it was suppressed, fast and discreet, but the gas canisters were smaller, somewhat heavier, and packed a bigger punch per shot at the cost of a much smaller ammunition capacity. It still had the infrared laser, and featured an adjusting gel-grip, a handguard, and blue glow sights.

The third weapon at their disposal was a plasma shotgun, the XA-20P. Unlike the others, this weapon unloaded a plasma canister's entire capacity in a single shot, and had the same range issue than any shotgun would naturally have if not using slugs. To compensate for it's low ammunition capacity, the canisters were very small, no larger than a regular 12 gauge shotgun shell, and the gun could load 6 at a time, and could also load regular shotgun shells. It was a regular pump-action to eject and load in new canisters. It was suppressed like the other guns, and likewise featured the infrared laser, and blue glow sights.

The fourth gun was a revolving missile launcher that could load four rockets, the RML-6. It featured a computer that allowed it to lock-on to targets, and for the rockets to home in and follow it's targets.

The fifth was a high-velocity sniper rifle, the XA-22SR(B). Unlike the other firearms excluding the rocket launcher, this was a ballistic weapon. The usage of bullets instead of plasma gave it much greater range, allowing it to pick off targets from an incredible range that wouldn't be possible for a plasma-based weapon. The scope could adjust anywhere from a simple 4x magnification to an incredible 120x, and featured computerized systems that allowed the gun to link to the helmet's systems to identify and track targets, adjust for factors present, and plot a course for a perfect shot. It also helped that the bullets it loaded were guided, and had stabilizing fins that allowed it to travel a far greater distance with pinpoint accuracy, and a depleted uranium core for unparalleled armor penetration. The downside to this was that the magazine could only hold four bullets maximum, and the weight of the bullets made for the user to have to either carry less ammunition, or pack less of other equipment.

And finally was the ultimate infantry weapon in Xonolite Armory's production, the ultimate infantry weapon it the entirety of the clone army's arsenal, the XA-CLC, or, Concentrated Laser Cannonade. The shoulder-mounted weapon was a technological marvel, allowing the user to, after a brief charge-up, unleash a devastating laser beam that made a joke of aura, shields, flesh, bone, and armor alike. The beam only fired for about a second and a half, but whatever it hit was history, including whatever was behind it, and behind that. If lined up correctly, it's been tested to be able to one-shot two heavy tanks, and severely damage a third. Of course, the devastating weapon was a prototype, highly classified, extraordinarily expensive, even for the Atlesian Military and the Schnee Dust Company. Outside of the clones, their instructors, Ozpin and the upper echelons of command in the Atlesian Military, nobody even knew of this weapon's existence.

They weren't too keen on using it in the deployment, but if the need arose to utilize such a devastating weapon, then the military was more than willing to greenlight it's usage. Even so, they were hoping that even if they were to bring it, they wouldn't have to use it.

"Well… the fleet put up a decent fight." One of them said, their voice soft and somewhat calming to anyone other than another clone's ears. ODAC-01-73984, nicknamed 'Mouse' on account of her kind heart and soft voice. However, only an idiot would let that fool them, as she was an expert demolitionist, the best on the squad. She'd been trained from birth like her other sisters, with the chosen specializations assigned to her at birth being explosive ordinance and demolitions, and the augmentations she'd been designed with to help her excel at this task. Her left shoulder pad's lower plate was extended downward to cover more of her arm, and had an additional heavy plate up top for extra protection. On the upper right side of her helmet she had a high-powered flashlight that she could use to blind enemies in close quarters, or to shine light on explosive traps she was setting up. She had extra explosives on her belt, and her backpack was equipped with radio equipment and remote detonators she could use from her helmet. On her breastplate was a white smiley face with a circle around it on a red background.

"Of course they did, this is the homeland!" Another clone grumbled, crossing her arms as she looked down on the table. ODAC-01-88933, nicknamed 'Bear' on account of her ferocity in combat and steadfast protectiveness of all her comrades, be they her sisters or not. She was born with the chosen specializations and augmentations giving her an edge in the usage of heavy weapons and forward assault. Her armor had additional plates on the chest, helmet, gauntlets and boots, and had a white skull with crossed bones underneath it on an orange background in the center of her breastplate.

"Better late than never, I guess..." Came another, somewhat deeper and more sarcastic in her tone. ODAC-01-80085, or as she nicknamed herself so uncouthly, "Boobs," as a play on her designation and her augmentations having the unexpected side-effect of noticeably enlarged breasts. Ever the sarcastic one, She would pop a joke whenever she felt so inclined to do so. The specializations she was assigned and the augments she'd received at birth made her a hyper-lethal sniper in any given situation. She was the designated sniper, and as such, she used less equipment than her other sisters, forgoing a right shoulder pad in favor of a larger, heavier left one that assisted in stabilizing her aim, and didn't use a backpack. Her helmet had an optical visor flipped up just above the visor, and on her breastplate there were two crossed sniper rifles just behind a skull with a hole that had cracks spreading from it off to the right of it's temple on a blue background.

"Why don't you show some respect, Boobs?!" Bear snapped at the girl. Forming a fist with the hand she was resting on the table.

"Hey, I'm just saying, no need to get angry! I'm just saying, they missed a few!" She held her hands up defensively, getting a grumble out of her tougher sister as she pointed at the three massive carriers looming over the seaside city.

"No, they left them for us." She stated, standing upright and resting a hand on her helmet laying on the table alongside her other sisters.

Though before anyone could say anything more, the alarms blared, along with the doors behind them sliding open, revealing another clone, this one standardly equipped outside of a knife on the side of their breastplate, the absence of a backpack or any markings on their breastplate and an advanced command uplink on her helmet, and a tall, muscular human male who looked to be in his early twenties at most walking in with their helmets tucked under their arm.

Immediately, all three clones snapped to attention as their sergeant, a slightly older clone who'd been running operations like this under the radar for a handful of years by now, entered the room. ODAC-01-00073, "Boss." They'd given her the nickname on account that if something was gonna happen with the squad, she always got her way… and the tidbit that she was a Gunnery Sergeant, and the highest rank any of them were was a Corporal. Still, they couldn't complain. Sure, she could be a bit bossy at times, even for an NCO, but she did care deeply for her squad, even if it didn't seem like it half the time.

"You know the music girls, time to dance." She said in a somewhat upbeat tone, though as if by instinct, Boobs turned her attention to the man in the room. He was tall and muscular, sure, but to top it all off he had the looks, too! Icy blue eyes, short, well-trimmed blonde hair, a strong jawline and a few sexy scars running down the right side of his clean-shaven face. His serious demeanor and air of authority made him all the more attractive in all the clones' eyes, though only one of them was so bold as to voice that…

"Well… Hello handsome~" She purred, getting a small growl out of Bear, a muted chuckle out of Mouse, and an unamused glare from the Sergeant.

"Pods. Now!" She ordered, with the three clones moving as ordered, heading towards the ordered destination after grabbing their helmets. She sighed as she turned back to the man standing head and shoulders over her. She gave a small sigh before walking forward a bit, giving the tall man some room to move.

"New squad?" He asked, his voice deep and powerful as he walked up next to her to take another look at the map.

"With how much command likes to move me around, when isn't it?" She replied, half sarcastic and half serious.

"Well, at least their profile says they follow orders."

"They listen to ME, and they're not gonna like what they hear if they're anything like their profiles suggest!" She grumbled, turning to face him.

"Orders are orders."

"C'mon Joseph, what can possibly be more important than those carriers over the city?" She questioned, believing that the commanding carrier was their objective.

"MY orders. And Boss? Call me Captain. I'll pass on that dance you mentioned, but you can tell me where my pod is." He said with a serious tone, marching off a bit while she just sighed and looked up, closing her eyes for a second before moving over towards her squad…

"Seriously?" Boobs inquired as she looked over at Bear, who was holding and inspecting a XA-25S she'd picked up from the rack. She looked over at her sister and shrugged.

"Well, it's gonna be close quarters." Bear replied, with the girl picking up and pushing an XA-20P blaster shotgun at her.

"Exactly!" She said with a cherry tone, but her more serious sister just pushed the shotgun away, just in time as the sergeant rounded the corner…

"Second pod down on row four, right next to mine." She said, getting a small snicker from Boobs.

"Cozy… Gonna tell us that hunk's name, Boss?" She joked, though her elder sister just snatched the shotgun out of her hands…

"SIR, Military Intelligence!" She explained, shoving the shotgun back in it's rack. "Our new boss. So check your gear, shut your mouths, find your pods, and get set!" She stopped for a moment, picking up an XA-22SR(B) and pushing it into Boobs's… boobs. "For a combat drop!" She finished, snapping on her helmet and stalking over to her pod.

She looked at the sniper rifle for a few moments before groaning loudly, moving off to find her pod after snapping her helmet on, audibly complaining the whole way.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing INSIDE a carrier?" She complained, before moving over to the final ODAC who was in the pod adjacent to hers, taking a nap. ODAC-02-00739. The newest ODAC, who'd thus far only earned the nickname of "Newbie." She'd prepped her gear with an XA-25M, but outside of that, her gear was all standard gear, with nothing to make her stand out unlike the rest of them. Shrugging, Boobs walked up casually…

* * *

"Gah!" Newbie grunted as she was rudely awoken from her slumber by a hard bonk to the side of her head from the stock of a sniper rifle. Looking at the clone before her, she easily ID'd her as Boobs. It was obvious, because as if her being a whole two cups larger than the rest of the army sitting happily at C cups wasn't obvious enough, she also had her tag just over her breastplate resting on her collar reading out "BOOBS."

"Wake up sweet-cheeks." She said, before getting pushed out of the way by Bear, and pushed off towards her pod.

"Relax, Newbie, she doesn't mean nothing… Besides, now's the kinda time where it pays to be the strong, silent type…" She said, handing her a XA-22S. Nodding, she took the blaster and stowed it into it's rack in her pod. Not a second after Bear took her leave, the pod door shut on her, closing her in the pod as it began to turn.

As soon as it had turned a full 180 degrees, the on-board display in the door of her pod lit up, with the Sergeant's and the Captain's faces displayed. After a few seconds, though, like everyone else's, their visors darkened to conceal their faces.

"_Latest intel reports that the enemy is massing beneath the carriers." _Came the captain's voice, eliciting a response from Boss.

"_They're pulling back? Why would the empire pull back, they practically have full control of the city?"_

"_We're not gonna find out way up here. Prepare for drop." _His response came, getting a small grumble out of the Newbie. Gripping the pod control sticks tightly, she awaited the feeling of her first real drop. Sure, she'd felt the simulated combat drops back in Astra City, but never before had she actually dropped from orbit, and something about it all told her that it was going to be a VERY different experience…

"_We are cleared for drop! ODACs, we are dropping into hell, time to grow a pair!" _Boss yelled, presumably to get their squad and the one deploying with them fired up. Just as she finished her statement, the countdown began.

It went by so fast. First one beep, then a second, then a third, and _Drop! _The sudden feeling of her pod being released from the ship and its rapid descent from the topside propulsion system blasting off forced her head upwards. Forcing her head to look back down, she took in the sight of fellow pods descending with her own, and the burning wrecks that made up the fleet that had defended the city…

"_I take it back, the Fleet got its ass kicked!" _Boobs's voice came in, referring to the orbital carnage.

"_Hey, Boobs, remember when I told you to shut your mouth?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Consider that a standing order." _Boss said with finality. After a few more seconds, they were finally piercing through the clouds, blinding her from seeing anything until they'd pierced through the other end of the thick, dark grey clouds…

To reveal a burning city beneath them, and the three carriers hovering a few hundred meters above the tallest towers, and the beautiful sea that bordered the city. But something definitely wasn't right. Sure, if they adjusted their trajectories they could land in a handful of different areas near the shore, but no matter what they'd miss the carriers…

"_On my mark… mark!" _The man among them said, with all pods reacting as ordered.

"_What the? We're way off course!" _Boss's voice resounded, voicing the concerns of all clones present.

"_We're headed exactly where I need to go."_

"_But we're gonna miss the carriers!" _She stated, though as if in response to her claim, the carriers started taking off, headed back across the sea. Newbie gulped as she pushed the controllers to adjust her pod's trajectory so that she wouldn't land in the dark waters of the sea. But Boss was right, and those carriers weren't getting any closer, what with them moving away from them and to the other side of the peninsula.

"_Hey, Boss, look, they left something behind… some kind of orb?" _Mouse chimed in, looking at a spherical package that the main carrier had left behind...

"_Aw nuts! Pulse Bomb, everyone, hold on-" _She was cut off mid-sentence, as the orb exploded with a magnificent blue, electrical pulse and it's EMP effect killed all their connection. She gripped the bars in her pod hard in preparation for the incoming pulse.

Soon, all she could hear was static from her pod, the terrifying screech of the incoming pulse, and the EMP making the pods' engines go haywire. The pods became erratic, changing trajectories at random for a few seconds, until the pulse finally reached them, launching them all haphazardly, with another pod slamming directly into hers, Newbie quietly counted her luck that the collision hadn't done more than simply dented metal and cracked glass and prayed that she'd live to see the next day as her pod spiraled downward, her sense of direction long lost.

After a few seconds, with her grip on consciousness beginning to fade with the G-force hammering on her, she barely got a glimpse of where she was crashing, before everything turned black…

* * *

_8 hours later…_

* * *

She groaned lowly as consciousness slowly returned, rolling her neck as she took in the world around her. She was still in her pod, and there was a street below her, with a few scattered cars placed about haphazardly. Her visor had static running across her vision for a few seconds until it finally cleared up, allowing her to better see the world around her.

It was night time, if the darkened streets weren't enough evidence to that, and it was raining heavily. Not much different than Astra City in weather, so at least it wouldn't trouble her. Looking herself up and down, she checked to make sure all of her equipment was still intact, smiling in satisfaction as nothing on her person was damaged, save for her herself. Her HUD told her that her hard landing had damaged a few bones, and her whole body had sustained a little damage, with her body on her HUD being highlighted in yellow everywhere.

Well, at least it wasn't red or black. Yellow signified damaged bones, red broken bones, and black indicated that that part of your body was no longer attached to you, with the best condition being blue, which signified that that area was in perfect condition.

Looking at her pod, she leaned forward a bit, though due to just how cracked the glass was, it was impossible to tell just how high up she was. Sighing, she pulled the release on her pod, only for it to fail opening, the one remaining light next to it that's glass hadn't completely shattered bleeping red a few times.

She shook her head, before punching the emergency pressure lock-releases. The pod hissed for a few seconds after punching the last release, before the door blasted off, crushing the roof of a small car with it's landing. Looking down, Newbie groaned as she calculated that she must've been at least five storeys.

If her legs were in perfect condition and her aura not compromised, this fall would've been nothing. But as it stood, her aura was in a bad state, and her legs weren't much better. If she hopped out, her aura would only protect her enough that her legs would simply be broken and not irreparably damaged.

It wouldn't do to recklessly hurt herself like that, so, making another small double-take of the area, she smiled as she noticed a first-aid station about fifty meters away, which her suit's computers told her was still mostly stocked, and had aura accelerant. Just what she'd need. It wouldn't put her back at peak condition after her fall, but she'd at least be able to jog and fight through mild pain…

Cracking her neck, Newbie gathered her equipment and leapt out of her pod, bracing herself for the fall. She grit her teeth as she landed boots first and immediately collapsed onto her side, her legs snapped like twigs.

She mustered her willpower to not make a sound as her bones gave way, and began crawling over towards the first-aid station as soon as she'd pushed herself onto her chest.

It took a few short minutes to reach the station, but as soon as she was there, she began to apply the aura accelerant and other medical practices, and within another small handful of minutes, she was on her feet again, shifting her gaze left and right, sweeping the rooftops of buildings as she passed them, keeping all her senses on high alert as she stalked down the street.

It was a slow process, but she found a door that would actually open after maybe twenty minutes. Save for the rain, the city was totally silent. No gunfire, no explosions, no screams. Whatever fires were still raging were nowhere near her part of the city. The only sound in play other than the rain at that moment was the small pitter-patter of her feet in the small puddles concealed by the dark.

She did try to activate her night vision, but the EMP's effects had rendered non-vital systems within her suit inoperable. She'd already started the reboot for her suit, but night vision and other fancy features still wouldn't be operable for another twelve minutes. For now, her flashlight would do. The bottom line of it all was that she needed to find her squad, or at least find out what's been going on since the drop.

All she needed to do was find and make physical contact with SOMETHING that was connected to her squadmates, and her semblance would do the rest.

She remembered Raven's advice for situations like these: "_If separated from your squad or facing a numerically superior force, do NOT engage the enemy directly! Hit-and-run and ambush tactics are your friends, use them!" _She didn't see any enemies, but it wouldn't hurt to duck into the building and lie low, at least until her suit's systems had fully rebooted.

Though, as if by fate, she crouched low to the ground as she heard something from upstairs. It sounded like footsteps, but she couldn't be too sure. It was definitely coming closer, that much was made more certain by a beam of light appearing in the stairwell. Thinking on her feet, she pressed up against the wall, and lifted herself up onto a high place just above eye level, at least if whoever it was was just doing a quick sweep with the flashlight, they likely wouldn't notice her since she had practically stuck herself to the ceiling.

Sure enough, after a few tense and long seconds, a man dressed in the enemy's uniform and equipment emerged from the stairwell, yawning loudly as he quickly swept over the room, which was more than enough for her.

Pulling her knife out of its sheath on her belt, she silently dropped down behind him as he passed, reaching up as she landed and cupping a hand over the man's mouth as she ran the serrated back across his throat, tearing it apart and sealing his fate. She smiled as after a few seconds, he ceased struggling, and simply went limp.

Gently lowering him to the floor as to not make any noise, she crept up the stairs soundlessly, stopping just before every door, and clearing the room, not that she found many more hostiles. She had entered one room and caught two soldiers sleeping, a third while he was using the bathroom, and on the 6th floor, one with a wide window and a large television in the back, she brained an enemy officer who was too busy preoccupying herself with a smoke to notice her.

Looking back at the television, she noted that it was all static, with a large web of cracks stemming from one spot where a helmet was lodged in… an ODAC helmet.

Quickly moving over to it, she pulled it out and looked it over for any identification, eventually finding the abbreviation for captain on the underside. Noting that it was split straight up from chin to forehead, she could only assume the human must've been killed…

Oh well, it really didn't matter anyways. But it was clear that he had been connected to something relating to her squad, so she didn't have much choice.

Holding the helmet in both hands, she moved the helmet around a bit, bonking the visor a few times with her index finger. After about a minute of more carefully examining it, she concentrated her semblance, being overcome in a grey light with the helmet perfectly highlighted, before everything went white...


	15. Chapter 15: ODAC pt2

_Boss_

_Immediately After Drop…_

* * *

She quickly shook herself off from the shockwave, bonking herself on the head a few times as she regained her bearings and looked out the pod's windows to get her bearings. She was spiraling, so, that wasn't fun, and made it more difficult to make out WHAT was going on, but eventually, she managed to get a good look of her trajectory. At the current trajectory, she'd clip this skyscraper, then dive straight into the ocean with enough velocity to carry her well below crushing depths for the pod...

Growling, she tried for the pod's reverse thrusters, but found all systems were out. quickly assessing her options, she looked out the window and saw she was coming close to the tower...

_"Alright, that'll do... just gotta time this right..." _She thought, punching all but one of the pressure releases, and began a mental countdown... before slamming her fist into the last release. After a small hiss, the time of which she took to collect her weapons, the door blew off, and she leapt out. before she could even think, she reflexively raised her arms to protect her face and upper body with her forearms as she slammed through the thick glass windows, and her force carried her through several more walls before she finally skid to a stop just short of fallout off the edge and plummeting to a clumsy, stupid death. Once she was finally at a stop, she let her head fall back as she laid on her back, looking straight up at the ceiling...

"Okay... That hurt..." She groaned, before some static came through over her radio...

"Hey, whoever is trying to contact me, switch to channel charlie 14 gamma, all I'm getting from your end is static!" She ordered, and immediately the static cleared up as the person on the other end changed channels.

_"I said, Boss, what's your status? Are you within the city?" _Ah, it was the captain. Cracking her neck, she reached a hand up to her helmet, and pressed the button so she could respond...

"Uhhhh, no, I'm actually, on a yacht in the Atlesian Ocean. With the Achieve Men."

_"Uh... OMG? Send Pics?"_

"No, Captain, I'm actually near the top of Sentinel Tower."

_"No way, how'd you manage to get back so fast? The Atlesian Ocean is practically on the other side of the planet." _The Captain joked, before Boss picked herself up and looked around.

"Nuts... I'm on floor 138, it looks like the elevators are out." She inched over, and opened the door, noting that all the cables were snapped. "Yep, all the elevators are definitely out."

_"Well when you're done goofing off up there I need some help. I landed on the ground, my pod is jammed. Pressure release failed, I need another hand." _His voice came over her radio, making her sigh lightly.

"Ugh, did I... do something wrong? Because the only thing I regret, about you and me, not knowing you were a big atlesian military spook when we first met. Would've come off as a lot less charming." Boss said as she stood upright, cracking her back as her aura slowly healed.

_"That's what I miss most about you, Boss. Your mouth moves about twenty times faster than your brain. look, I can't apologize for my job, we both agreed to end it, don't you remember?"_

"That was years ago, I'm a little fuzzy on the-" She cracked her back properly, "-details. Must've met a lot of other clones since then, why choose ME for this mission?"

_"Boss, you're the best trooper I know of, and you remember that night, at Baleful Ridge, what you asked me?"_

"I remember you not giving me an actual answer..." Boss murmured under her breath, before seeing several Empire gunships fly around the area her HUD showed the captain to have landed.

_"What was that, Boss? You're breaking up-"_

"I said stay put, I'm on my way!" She declared, before darting for the stairwell...

* * *

She was able to make it down about twenty floors before the rest was cut off from a raging fire. She growled, ducking into the main floor of the level she was on, whipping her XA-25S back and forth, before ultimately deciding the floor was free of hostiles. Still, it wouldn't do to be caught off guard, Raven's lessons had drilled home that point. Never let your guard down, the difference between your death and your enemy's often fell down to who got the drop on who, and while her death was ultimately inevitable to redeem her kind, right now, there was someone depending on her, and she'd be damned if she'd let anything stop her from saving him.

After a few seconds, she found a hole in the ground. Heavy ordinance from the enemy fleet made this happen, but it opened a pathway for her. Four floors blown through, each one a raging inferno except where it stopped. Cracking her neck, she jumped down, letting her aura tank the fall as she landed. Though, as soon as she hit the ground, it gave way, crashing through and falling down another two floors.

Staying surefooted as she fell with the floor, she crouched down as she came to a halt, allowing the force to fade away with it. Looking up, she noted a few targets, all wearing the enemy's uniform... and it looked like they were setting charges... They're going to blow the tower!

Snapping her gun up, she let rip into her still-stunned enemies, cutting them down without any remorse or mercy, before snapping around the corner and cutting down another handful of shocked enemies, and getting to work on disabling the charges. There was an Atlesian armored column on the streets below. If they blew the tower, the debris would wreak havoc on them... but then she looked at the floor below through a hole in the ground, only to see more charges...

_"These charges are set to blow on a timer... I don't have enough time to disable all these charges, I have to get down to the ground before they blow, and warn our comrades." _She decided, and slid down the debris wall onto the lower floor, cutting down another three soldiers and racing to the end of the hall. Stopping at the stairwell, she pressed herself against the wall next to the door, and listened to the footsteps.

With a nod, she drew her knife with her left hand, took it in an underhanded grip, extended her upper arm horizontal to her shoulders pressed against the wall, and straightened out her forearm, letting the running man impale his throat on her knife with just a little assistance, before coming around and shoulder-bashing him off and over the railings of the stairs.

Looking around a bit, she saw that three floors down, the stairs weren't on fire. Holstering her guns, she set herself on the railing, and dived down, just barely slipping through the doorway on that not-on-fire-floor three levels down and breaking into a roll as she landed. Rising to her feet, she drew her XA-22M from her him, precisely blasting each of the five targets in the head as she came up. Sprinting forward, she dug her foot into the floor as she slid, leveling the gun down the hall she was turning into... only for her gun to get slapped out of her hand.

Acting on reflex, she ducked back, just narrowly dodging a slash from her opponent's knife. Throwing herself back, she drew her knife and stood in a ready stance after putting some distance between herself and her opponent. Her opponent was far bigger than her, quite possibly taller than 6'6", and massive in terms of sheer muscle. She'd have to play this carefully, one wrong move and he'd have prime opportunity to straight up physically overpower her.

He made the first move, stabbing diagonally, forcing her to duck back, before flipping his knife's grip around and slashing horizontally at her neck. Quickly, she ducked under the attack, but before she could retaliate, he pressed his advantage, as she realized she was cornered. She used her left to push his knee off, but just as she did, he forced her to duck further into the corner as he went to stab for her head, ramming his knife into the wall she had herself pressed against. Just as she was where he wanted, he pressed his advantage by forcing himself to fall on top of her, using his spare hand to pin her arm holding the knife to the ground.

Grinning under her mask, she smiled as this soldier had unintentionally given her exactly what she wanted. As she rested pinned to a piece of debris that her head hung just over, she drew her head back, used her offhand to grab his uniform and force him closer, before ramming her head forward. With that, he recoiled as she broke his nose, who used his momentary weakness to toss her knife to the hand that wasn't still pinned, forced her forearm up and over her head, pushing his knife off course and making his stab the floor just over her head, before ramming her knife forward, stabbing straight through his through, and cleanly severing his vertebrae, making him go limp.

Shoving his dying form off of herself, she pulled a handkerchief out of his picket, and used it to wipe the blood off her visor, before using it to wipe the blood off her knife and throwing the piece of cloth onto the dying man's face.

"You clearly weren't a run of the mill soldier, so I'm gonna guess you were one of your boys' equivalent of a hunter or huntress... Fortunately for me, I'm no huntress." She said, before sheathing her knife, picking up her gun, and leaving him to bleed and choke to death...

* * *

After another 15 minutes of descent and no further serious engagements, she made it to the third floor, and now was just to make her way down to the ground...

_*Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr **BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT***_

_"THAT was definitely an XA-45 Rotary Blaster Cannon. It's Clone Army exclusive, and not utilized by ODACs, so there must be a Hoots Trooper here." _She thought internally, before finally reaching the ground floor and looking out onto the street. Sure enough, there, in all her glory, was a Hoots trooper. She wore blue markings, so it was easy to denote her as a Lieutenant, a superior. Rushing forward, she threw herself into cover next to the Hoots Trooper and made herself known.

"Sir, ODAC Gunnery Sergeant Boss here, are you in charge of this armored column?" She inquired, receiving a swift nod and a hearty laugh out of the Hoots trooper as she too ducked into cover after loosing another volley upon the enemy.

"Nice of you to drop in, Sister! That's right, I'm Lieutenant Meteorite, acting commander of this armored column. Report!" She ordered, getting a nod from Boss.

"The enemy has rigged the top of Sentinel Tower to blow. There was too many charges to deactivate before at least one would've gone off and caused a chain reaction. You need to get your forces outta here, the debris will decimate your men."

"There's enemies in the tower? Grrr... No matter. Good work, Sis. I'll pull our forces back, find a different attack vector." She responded confidently, before touching a finger to her communicator. "This is Lieutenant Meteorite to everyone in the 14th Armored, fallback to rally point Foxtrot immediately, over." She finished, before turning back to Boss. "You did good, ODAC. I saw your pods get scattered, looked real nasty from down here. That being said, I saw one of your pods crash East of here, looked like it hit one of the hotel courtyards. Best guess from the impact smoke, Angel's. On your way, Commando!" The Hoots trooper ordered, and received only a nod from Boss as she took off in the direction of the fallen pod...

* * *

She worked her way through buildings and alleyways so as to not draw a lot of attention to herself, until eventually, she'd arrived at her destination. There were a small handful of enemies milling about around the pod, but none that she wasn't easily able to kill within a few short seconds of dropping down into the courtyard and sprinting up to the pod and setting her guns down as she grabbed the door of the pod.

"I'm here, Joseph, Don't worry! Just a sec... Urah!" She roared as she threw the door off... only to find it completely empty... "Joseph? Where- AAAAAAAAAGHH!" She screamed as she felt something jab into her side from behind and she was electrocuted. Falling to her knees as her muscles refused to respond to her, she suddenly felt a blunt pain across her entire side as she was sent reeling, and nearly blacked out as she crashed against the hard cement floor, her entire world a blur.

"Ooohhhh... Owww...' She shook her head as she rolled onto her back, clearing her head a bit... only to see another massive figure like the one from the tower approaching her. He was covered head-to-toe in sterling silver plates, and holding a sort of halberd sheathed in electricity, and impaled on the axe was...

"WOAH!" Boss screamed in horror as it was the captain's helmet, scrambling back helplessly as it raised its weapon overhead and prepared to strike. She gulped as her life flashed before her eyes, and prepared for a gruesome end to her saga...

until suddenly, a massive, blue laser lanced out from one of the apartment windows, disintegrating the massive figure's head. Looking over to the origin point of the laser, she saw none other than Bear saluting her from afar, XA-CLC slung over her shoulder.

With a small sigh of relief, Boss quietly returned the salute, before rising to her feet and nodding... Only to look off to her side as some weird clicking noise started emitting from the massive dead figure. The plates flared up and red light began to shoot out from between the plates in greater amounts as the sound became increasingly high pitched.

Having seen enough sci-fi movies to know where this was going, Boss threw herself to the side, just narrowly clearing the safe distance as the behemoth erupted into a big, violent explosion, launching the captain's helmet off to an unknown location...

Picking herself up, she shook her head again, slapping the side of her head a few times as she tried to make sense of what just happened. She'd mostly recovered from the jolt by now, it was just a matter of when the aching from where the jolt came from would fade away. Looking up, she saw bear drop down into the courtyard, rolling her shoulders as she closed the distance with her. Both clones stopped about a meter from each other, with the less-bewildered clone tossing Boss a bottle of water.

"What the heck was that guy? I killed one of them in the tower earlier, but if there's more of them... You ever seen one of them? Were they in the simulations?" Boss queried, catching the bottle and removing her helmet to quickly guzzle it's contents down.

"Negative Boss... but I'd heard rumors that the enemy was trying to make a super-soldier program. This might be the result... or at least one form of it." The grizzled clone replied, looking down at it's burning remains. "But I wasn't just gonna let it kill a sister of mine... like it did the captain..."

"Yeah... Thanks, sis..." She said, collecting her weapons. "You hear from Mouse? Boobs? Newbie?"

"No, haven't heard anything."

"We need to get above all this, link with the Battle Net, one of our drones must've seen where they hit. We recoup, and find a way out of this hellhole."

"So we're popping smoke in the Captain's mission? We just got here, but then again, we never knew the objective in the first place. That boy ever tell you what he wanted? What he was after?" Bear inquired, handing Boss her XA-25S.

"No... He never did..." She sighed, before snapping on her helmet, discarding the obviously refrigerator-raided water bottle as she took her gun from Bear. "Doesn't matter. All that matters now is getting my squad out of the city. Even Boobs." She said, getting a curt nod from the other clone, before both stalked off, making their way back towards friendly lines, rally with Meteorite at the rally point...

* * *

Newbie dropped the helmet and raised her gun as she finished and her vision returned, hearing incoming footsteps. The helmet had given her all the information she could extract with her semblance, and now she needed to move. Tapping her helmet, she found that the reboot was complete, and so activated her Thermal Vision, noting a whole squad of enemies walking down the hall. Must've been sent to check up on the slackers she'd found in this building.

It was of no consequence. pulling a grenade from her belt, she mentally projected it's trajectory, pulled the pun, squeezed the clip, and tossed the grenade. After a second and a half passed, accompanied by a handful of horrified screams, the grenade detonated, instantly killing all six soldiers. Stepping around the corner, she deftly stepped over their bleeding corpses and avoided stepping in their growing pools of blood. It was mainly because she was rather picky about getting her boots dirty when it wasn't necessary, and because she didn't want to leave a trail of any sort on accident. After a few short minutes, she found her way out of the building, this time from the back, and exited out into an alleyway. Looking up, she saw that, true to the nature of explosives, Sentinel Tower was blown apart, a raging pyre piercing the sky.

Well, it mattered not. She knew that Boss, the Captain, and Bear at least had landed in this area, so maybe more of the squad had landed near this area? It was a good thought, but that explosion was pretty hectic. Chances are, it was just dumb luck these three landed together...

She couldn't rely on luck. She need cameras, pictures, anything to give her clues. The city police and security office was just a few blocks down, certainly, if she was gonna find out where to look, that would be the best place...


End file.
